Detroit Metro Times

The ''Detroit Metro Times'' is a progressive alternative weekly located in Detroit, Michigan. It is the largest circulating weekly newspaper in the metro Detroit area.

History and content

Supported entirely by advertising, it is distributed free of charge every Wednesday in newsstands in businesses and libraries around the city and suburbs. Compared to the two dailies, the ''Detroit Free Press'' and the ''Detroit News'', the ''Metro Times'' has a liberal orientation, like its later competitor ''Real Detroit Weekly''. Average circulation for the ''Metro Times'' is 50,000 weekly. Average readership is just over 700,000 weekly.

Its annual "Best of Detroit" survey awards local businesses. The categories include "Public Square" (city life); "Spend the Night" (nightlife and bars); "Nutritional Value" (restaurants and food); and "Real Deal" (retail and other stores).

Syndicated alternative comics run by the ''Metro Times'' have in the past included ''Perry Bible Fellowship'', ''This Modern World'', '' Eric Monster Millikin'' and ''Red Meat''. The ''Metro Times'' also prints Dan Savage's ''Savage Love'' sex advice column (which replaced Isadora Alman's ''Ask Isadora'' sex advice column) and Cal Garrison's ''Horoscopes'' (which replaced Rob Brezsny's ''Free Will Astrology''). Starting with the January 19–25 issue, the ''Metro Times'' had its own exclusive crossword, crafted by Brooklyn-based cruciverbalist Ben Tausig, who appears in the documentary ''Wordplay''. Editors cut the crossword in May 2008 to save space.

The paper was founded in 1980 by publisher and editor Ron Williams. In December 2012, Metro Times Editor W. Kim Heron announced his departure. Heron had previously been the paper's managing editor. In March 2013, after three months during which Michael Jackman was interim editor, the publisher named Bryan Gottlieb as Editor-in-Chief.

In April 2014, Valerie Vande Panne, former editor of ''High Times,'' was named editor-in-chief. In May 2014, the ''Metro Times'' merged with ''Real Detroit Weekly,'' which had been a Detroit-area alternative weekly paper since 1999. Dustin Blitchok took over as editor-in-chief in February 2016, before resigning from the position in November of the same year. Former ''Metro Times'' staff writer and associate editor for ''Hour Detroit'' Lee DeVito was named editor-in-chief following Blitchok's departure.

The ''Metro Times'' was an official sponsor of the now-defunct Detroit Festival of the Arts and had one of the stages named after it.

The ''Metro Times'', is well known for its progressive news and opinion.

Offices

The headquarters are located in Midtown Detroit. It was previously headquartered in the Detroit Cornice and Slate Company Building in Downtown Detroit. The ''Metro Times'' moved to the Cornice and Slate building in the 1990s and building owners constructed a wraparound expansion to give the newspaper additional room.''Look Up: Top 10 Downtown Buildings,''Archive
AIA Detroit, ModelD, November 8, 2005. In 2013 Blue Cross Blue Shield purchased the Cornice and Slate building, forcing the ''Metro Times'' to move to a leased space in Ferndale. According to editor-in-chief Lee DeVito, the newspaper intended to eventually return to Detroit. In 2018, ''Metro Times'' returned to Detroit, moving into the Arnold E. Frank Building in Midtown.

References

External links

Official website

{{Euclid Media Group

Newspapers published in Detroit
Alternative weekly newspapers published in the United States
1980 establishments in Michigan
Publications established in 1980
Progressivism in the United States