Business News

Detroit Free Press Awarded Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting

Tuesday 21. April 2009 - Coverage of mayoral scandal earns highest award in journalism

The Detroit Free Press won a Pulitzer Prize today in local reporting for coverage of the mayoral text scandal which led to the resignation and felony conviction of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Reporters Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick began their investigation in January 2008 and uncovered text messages proving that the former mayor and his chief of staff had lied under oath during a 2007 trial involving the termination of the deputy police chief.

“The truth had to be told and that is why we are in this business,” said Dave Hunke, Publisher of the Detroit Free Press and CEO of Detroit Media Partnership. “We don’t do things for prizes. I could not be more proud.”

The Detroit Free Press has won eight other Pulitzer Prizes, journalism’s highest honor, since the awards were first presented beginning in 1918. The most recent was awarded in 1990 for feature photography.

Detroit Media Partnership, L.P. manages the business functions of the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News. As the largest newspapers in Michigan, with two of the most visited Web sites in the market, the Free Press and The News combine to reach a weekly audience of 2.1 million people; 56% of adults in this market see our products.* Detroit Media Partnership is also the advertising sales agent for the following suburban Detroit publications: Observer & Eccentric and Mirror Newspapers, Novi News, Milford Times, Northville Record, South Lyon Herald and Livingston County Daily Press & Argus. Gannett Co., Inc., owner of the Free Press, is the general partner in DMP; MediaNews Group, owner of The News, is the limited partner.