 | |
 AAN award winning cover of the Aug. 8-14, 2018Metro Times, by Eric Millikin. | |
| Type | Alternative weekly |
|---|---|
| Owner | Big Lou Holdings LLC |
| Publisher | Chris Keating |
| Editor | Lee DeVito |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Headquarters | 30 E. Canfield St.,Detroit,Michigan 48201 |
| Circulation | 50,000 |
| ISSN | 0746-4045 |
| OCLC number | 10024235 |
| Website | metrotimes.com |
TheDetroit Metro Times is a progressivealternative weekly newspaper located inDetroit,Michigan. It is the largest circulating weekly newspaper in themetro Detroit area.
TheMetro Times was an official sponsor of the now-defunctDetroit Festival of the Arts, where one of the stages is named after it.
Founded in 1980, the Metro Times since its inception has been supported entirely by advertising and distributed free of charge every Wednesday in newsstands, businesses, and libraries around the city of Detroit and its suburbs. Compared to the two dailies, theDetroit Free Press and theDetroit News, theMetro Times has a liberal orientation, like its later competitorReal Detroit Weekly. As of 2014, average circulation for theMetro Times was 50,000 weekly and it was available at more than 1,200 locations.[1] Average readership is just over 700,000 weekly.[2]
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).[3]
Syndicated alternative comics run by theMetro Times have in the past includedPerry Bible Fellowship,This Modern World,Eric Monster Millikin andRed Meat. TheMetro Times also prints Dan Savage'sSavage Love sex advice column (which replaced Isadora Alman'sAsk Isadora sex advice column) and Cal Garrison'sHoroscopes (which replacedRob Brezsny'sFree Will Astrology). Starting with the January 19–25[year needed] issue, theMetro Times had its own exclusive crossword, crafted by Brooklyn-based cruciverbalist Ben Tausig, who appears in the documentaryWordplay. Editors cut the crossword in May 2008 to save space.
The paper was founded in 1980 by co-publishers Ron Williams and Laura Markham, with Williams as editor and Markham as business manager.[4][5] 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.[6]
In 2013,Times-Shamrock Communications sold the newspaper toEuclid Media Group.[7] The company dissolved in August 2023 and the sold to Chris Keating, operating under the name Big Lou Holdings LLC.[8]
In April 2014, Valerie Vande Panne, former editor ofHigh Times, was named editor-in-chief.[9] In May 2014, theMetro Times merged withReal Detroit Weekly, which had been a Detroit-area alternative weekly paper since 1999.[10] Dustin Blitchok took over as editor-in-chief in February 2016,[11] before resigning from the position in November of the same year. FormerMetro Times staff writer and associate editor forHour Detroit Lee DeVito was named editor-in-chief following Blitchok's departure.[12]
Euclid Media Group dissolved in August 2023 and the newspaper was sold to Chris Keating, operating under the name Big Lou Holdings LLC.[8]
The headquarters are located inMidtown Detroit.[13] It was previously headquartered in theDetroit Cornice and Slate Company Building inDowntown Detroit.[14] TheMetro Times moved to the Cornice and Slate building in the 1990s and building owners constructed a wraparound expansion to give the newspaper additional room.[15] In 2013Blue Cross Blue Shield purchased the Cornice and Slate building, forcing theMetro Times to move to a leased space inFerndale.[16][17] According to editor-in-chief Lee DeVito, the newspaper intended to eventually return to Detroit.[18] In 2018, theMetro Times returned to Detroit, moving into the Arnold E. Frank Building in Midtown.[19]
