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 The July 27, 2005 front page of Stars and Stripes (Middle East Edition) | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner | Defense Media Activity |
| Publisher | Max D. Lederer Jr.[1] |
| Editor-in-chief |
|
| Managing editor |
|
| General manager | Laura Law(Chief Operating Officer) |
| Director of Interactive | Mark Nolan[1] |
| Ombudsman | Jacqueline Smith[1] |
| Founded | 1861; 164 years ago (1861) |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters |
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| Country | |
| ISSN | 0894-8542 |
| OCLC number | 8777119 |
| Website | stripes |
Stars and Stripes is a daily American militarynewspaper reporting on matters concerning the members of theUnited States Armed Forces and their communities, with an emphasis on those serving outside the United States. It operates from inside theDepartment of Defense, but is editorially separate from it, and itsFirst Amendment protection is safeguarded by theUnited States Congress to whom an independentombudsman, who serves the readers' interests, regularly reports. As well as a website,Stars and Stripes publishes a global daily print edition for U.S. military service members serving overseas Monday through Friday. This global edition is also available as a free download in electronic format. The newspaper has its headquarters inWashington, D.C.[2]
On November 9, 1861, during theCivil War, soldiers of the 11th, 18th, and 29thIllinois Regiments set up camp in theMissouri city ofBloomfield. Finding the local newspaper's office empty, they decided to print a newspaper about their activities. They called it theStars and Stripes. Tradition holds this as the origin story for the newspaper, and the Stars and Stripes Museum/Library Association is located in Bloomfield.[3][4]
DuringWorld War I, the staff, roving reporters, and illustrators of theStars and Stripes were veteran reporters or young soldiers who would later become such in the post-war years. It was published by theAmerican Expeditionary Forces (AEF) from February 8, 1918, to June 13, 1919.[5]Harold Ross, editor of theStars and Stripes, returned home to foundThe New Yorker magazine.[6]Cyrus Baldridge, its art director and principal illustrator, became a major illustrator of books and magazines, as well as a writer, print maker and stage designer. Sports page editorGrantland Rice had a long career in journalism and founded a motion picture studio called Grantland Rice Sportlight.[7] Drama criticAlexander Woollcott's essays forStars and Stripes were collected in his 1919 book,The Command Is Forward.
TheStars and Stripes was then an eight-page weekly which reached a peak of 526,000 readers, relying on the improvisational efforts of its staff to get it printed in France and distributed to U.S. troops.
DuringWorld War II, the newspaper was printed in dozens of editions in several operating theaters. Again, both newspapermen in uniform and young soldiers, some of whom would later become important journalists, filled the staffs. Some of the editions were assembled and printed very close to thefront in order to get the latest information to the most troops. Also, during the war, the newspaper published the 53-book seriesG.I. Stories. The Rome edition closed in 1945 and its printing press was transferred to the newRome Daily American in an arrangement facilitated by theCIA.[8]
AfterBill Mauldin did his popular "Up Front" cartoons for the World War IIStars and Stripes, he returned home to a successful career as an editorial cartoonist and two-time winner of thePulitzer Prize. Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist andwar correspondentErnie Pyle was regularly published in theStars and Stripes[9][10] before he was killed by a Japanesemachine-gunner onIejima during theBattle of Okinawa.
The magazine frequently posted photographs of a youngMarilyn Monroe, then known as Norma Jeane Dougherty, which later led her as being named "Miss Cheesecake 1952" byStars and Stripes.[11]
Funding and relevance in thedigital age have threatened the paper's budget. In 2013, the paper faced job cuts, printing-schedule changes, a pay-raise freeze and travel limitations for staff under theFederal budget sequestration.[12] The print newspapers provide the news back home to service members who areforward-deployed in areas lacking reliable internet access. Coverage of pay and benefits is of direct concern to service members and their families along with life on base and in the field.[13] The paper helps them be better-informed citizens about globalgeopolitics.[12] Budget cuts bythe Pentagon were again considered in 2016.[14]
TheWall Street Journal reported in February 2020, that a draft budget would reduce the newspaper's federal support in 2021 under a $5 billion shift to higher priorities in the defense budget.[14][15] Deputy Under Secretary of DefenseElaine McCusker indicated its funding would be cut and said: "We have essentially decided that, you know, kind of coming into the modern age that newspaper is probably not the best way that we communicate any longer."[14] The subsidy is more than $15 million a year, which represents approximately half the publication's budget and roughly 0.002 percent of the Department of Defense budget, which was $721,500 million in 2020. It was described by theStars and Stripes ombudsman as "a fatal cut".[13] In September, Defense SecretaryMark Esper justified the decision to discontinue publication of the paper as a result of his department-wide budget review.[16] An order for the newspaper to shutter was issued, specifically by presenting a plan for it to dissolve by September 15, including "specific timeline for vacating government owned/leased space worldwide" and to end publication by September 30, 2020.[17] SenatorDianne Feinstein (D-CA) led a bipartisan group opposed to the move, includingTammy Duckworth (D-IL), a veteran, andSusan Collins (R-ME).[18] On September 4, US presidentDonald Trump appeared to reverse this position by tweeting that funding would not be cut.[19][20] On September 30 the order to close was rescinded.[21]
Stars and Stripes is authorized by Congress and the US Department of Defense to produce independent daily military news and information distributed at U.S. military installations inEurope andMideast and East Asia. A weekly derivative product is distributed within the United States by its commercial publishing partners.Stars and Stripes newspaper averages 32 pages each day and is published intabloid format and online at www.stripes.com/epaper. With the website, a social media presence and a couple of podcasts, it is a modern multimedia operation.[13]Stars and Stripes employs civilian reporters, and U.S. military senior non-commissioned officers as reporters, at a number of locations around the world, and on any given day has an audience just shy of 1.0 million.Stars and Stripes also serves independent military news and information to an online audience of about 2.0 million unique visitors per month, 60 to 70 percent of whom are located in the United States.
Stars and Stripes is a non-appropriated fund (NAF) organization, only partially subsidized by the Department of Defense.[14] A large portion of its operating costs is earned through the sale of advertising and subscriptions but it relies on government funding to back overseas reporting and distribution. Unique among the many military publications,Stars and Stripes operates as a First Amendment newspaper and is part of theDefense Media Activity, formed in 2005.[19] The other entities encompassed by the Defense Media Activity (theDoD News Channel andArmed Forces Radio and Television Service, for example), arecommand publications of the Department of Defense; onlyStars and Stripes maintains complete editorial independence.
Stars and Stripes is in the process of digitizing its World War II editions. Newspapermicrofilm from 1949 to 1999 is now in searchable format through a partnership withHeritage Microfilm and has been integrated into an archives website.Newspaper Archive has also more recently[when?] made the England, Ireland and Mediterranean editions from World War II available.
The newspaper has been published continuously in Europe since 1942 and in the Pacific since 1945.
Notable formerStars and Stripes staffers include:CBS60 Minutes'Andy Rooney andSteve Kroft; songwriter and authorShel Silverstein;comic book illustratorTom Sutton; authorsGustav Hasford andRalph G. Martin; cartoonistBill Mauldin; painter and cartoonistPaul Fontaine; author and television news correspondentTony Zappone; cartoonistVernon Grant (A Monster Is Loose in Tokyo);Hollywood photographerPhil Stern;New Hampshire politicianDaniel M. Burnham and stock market reporter and host ofpublic television'sWall Street Week,Louis Rukeyser, and the only Black reporter in WWII, Allan Morrison.[22] Patricia Collins Hughes was a formerWASP and advocate for WASP veteran status.[23]
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A photograph inStars and Stripes loosely inspired the exploits ofPFCJack Agnew in the 1965 novel and its 1967 film adaptation,The Dirty Dozen.
Americancomic strips have been presented in a 15-page section,Stripes' Sunday Comics.
Sergeant J.T. "Joker" Davis and Private First Class "Rafterman" are a war correspondent and combat photographer, respectively, stationed inDa Nang forStars and Stripes inStanley Kubrick's 1987 filmFull Metal Jacket.
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