Chattanooga Times Free Press History and Impact

The Chattanooga Times Free Press is a daily broadsheet newspaper serving the metropolitan Chattanooga region of southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia. It stands as a primary source of local news, reporting, and community information for the region.

History of the Chattanooga Times

The Early Years

The Chattanooga Times was first published on December 15, 1869, by the firm Kirby & Gamble. In 1878, a young Adolph Ochs borrowed money to purchase a half interest in the struggling morning paper. By 1880, Ochs assumed full ownership for $5,500. In 1892, the paper's staff moved to the Ochs Building on Georgia Avenue at East Eighth Street (now the Dome Building).

In 1896, Ochs entrusted the management of the paper to his brother-in-law Harry C. Adler while he purchased The New York Times. Despite this transition, Ochs remained the publisher. His enduring slogan, "To give the news impartially, without fear or favor," remains affixed atop the paper's mast today.

History of the Chattanooga Free Press

From Tabloid to Daily

In 1933, Roy Ketner McDonald launched the Chattanooga Free Press as a free Thursday tabloid delivered door-to-door. Within three years, its circulation reached 65,000 per week. On August 31, 1936, it transitioned to an evening daily with paid subscriptions.

In December 1939, McDonald acquired The Chattanooga News, and the paper became the News-Free Press. This name change led to a humorous observation by William Strunk and E. B. White in The Elements of Style, who noted that the hyphenation made it sound as though the paper were "news-free, or devoid of news."

Competition and Collaboration

By 1941, the News-Free Press surpassed the Times in circulation. This led to the Times to launch an evening competitor, the Chattanooga Evening Times. However, in 1942, the competing newspapers entered into a joint operating agreement to share business and production operations while maintaining separate news and editorial departments.

Award-Winning Journalism

Both newspapers have a history of prestigious awards. In 1956, Charles L. Bartlett of the Chattanooga Times won a Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. In 1977, staff photographer Robin Hood of the Chattonoga News-Free Press won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for a poignant image of a Vietnam veteran.

The Merger and Modern Era

In 1998, Walter E. Hussman Jr. purchased the Free Press, and in 1999, he bought the Times, merging them into the Chattanooga Times Free Press on January 5, 1999. The paper continues to run two editorial pages—one liberal and one conservative—to reflect the legacy of its predecessor papers.

In 2003, Editor & Publisher magazine named the Times Free Press as one of ten newspapers in the United States "doing it right." The paper has also been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting in 2014 and 2017.