Freep editor Peter Bhatia: Online subscription offers chance to support great journalism

Peter Bhatia
Detroit Free Press

This is on our front-page masthead every day: “On Guard for 189 years.” For the news staff of the Free Press, these aren’t just mere words or another slogan. It represents our commitment to bringing you the best, most important and well-reported journalism every day. We are grateful for your support and that you come to us for honest, documented journalism on our website, over your smart speaker or via the newspaper.

I wrote this in May, on the paper's 189th birthday. It was part of a discussion of our COVID-19 coverage and included an ask to support reporters working for us as part of the Report for America project that helps fund reporter positions in newsrooms across the country. Thank you to the many of you who contributed.

I said then it was a tangible way to support our journalism.

Today, we are announcing another way.

Beginning Aug. 12, we will be designating some of our content on freep.com as "for subscribers" and those stories will be available only to those who purchase digital subscriptions. (How that will work is described in the accompanying article.) The vast majority of our content will remain free on freep.com. Print subscribers and subscribers to our daily electronic edition will get unrestricted access to subscriber-only content.

"Subscriber-only" stories will be the unique, revelatory, in-depth stories that are not available elsewhere.

This could include our important investigative journalism, a generations-long tradition at the Free Press, and that includes such work as Phoebe Wall Howard's "Out of Gear" investigation into Ford's willful marketing of cars with transmissions the auto company knew didn't work properly, the pattern of assault on American tourists in Jamaica reported by Tresa Baldas, or the examination of the University of Michigan's questionable investment practices by Matthew Dolan and David Jesse.

It could include special insight from our outstanding sports staff on our professional and college teams, from beat writers like Dave Birkett, Helene St. James, Omari Sankofa, Orion Sang and Chris Solari, and columnists Mitch Albom, Shawn Windsor and Jeff Seidel.

It could include deeply reported work from our talented critics and beat writers — our auto team sets the bar for coverage of the Detroit Three — and from our opinion writers, Nancy Kaffer and Brian Dickerson.

It could include our high-quality photo and video work from seasoned visual journalists such as Mandi Wright (who became something of a celebrity with her narration night after night of the recent protests in Detroit), Ryan Garza, Brian Kaufman and Eric Seals. 

More:Detroit Free Press to offer paid subscriptions for online content starting Aug. 12

I digitally subscribe to seven newspapers across the country and believe that our Kristen Jordan Shamus is among the top few reporters anywhere covering the COVID-19 story. Some of her exclusive work could be "subscriber-only," although generally COVID coverage will be available free as a public service. 

Most American newspapers have some sort of paid digital requirement today. The Wall Street Journal has required paid digital subscriptions since the inception of wsj.com almost 25 years ago. The New York Times has almost 6 million digital subscribers. And about three-quarters of newspapers in the country now charge in some way to digitally access their content.

Detroit Free Press photographer Mandi Wright and reporter M.L. Elrick record Facebook Live video as the protesters march along Lafayette Boulevard in downtown Detroit, Wednesday, June 3, 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated that quality, verified journalism has never been more important. The Free Press set audience records in March, April and May, drawing more than 100 million page views each month to our site. You have come to us for information on the pandemic 24/7, to know how to keep your family safe, for insight into how Michigan was faring, for the human stories of families and health providers coping with the wrenching impact of the virus and, sadly, for the stories of those taken from us.

We put the entire staff into coverage of the virus as it took hold in early March and our reporters and photographers walked miles and miles in coverage of protests and demands for change after May 25. Your readership during these past incredible months means everything to us.

In addition, never has journalism been more needed as we cope with the barrage of disinformation, conspiracy theories and social media falsehoods that have overrun our society. We take seriously our responsibility to you to get to the truth in all we do. 

Your subscription will help us keep up the fight for openness and freedom of information in Michigan. We have never been afraid to go to court to seek documents and information we believe to be in the public's interest. Thanks to the work of our counsel, Herschel Fink, our track record is generally good. Such suits are expensive, but we will not relent. We recently filed suit against the city of Detroit, seeking records we believe should be public relating to the city's internal investigation into whether a local charity received preferential treatment. 

We are in this to make a difference, for you, for Detroit, for the greater metro area, for Michigan. We look forward to detailing and explaining the fall election season. We will continue to investigate issues that matter to you. We will tell the stories of the extraordinary people who define Detroit and Michigan. And we are launching soon a new initiative to dive deeper into the neighborhoods of Detroit. We are dedicated to this place and improving the work we do. 

When Aug. 12 arrives, please consider subscribing to the Free Press for as low as $3 for the first three months. Thank you for your support of local journalism. 

Please keep reading. Stay safe. Wear a mask.

Peter Bhatia is editor and vice president of the Detroit Free Press. He also serves as Michigan editor of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at pbhatia@freepress.com.