The Detroit News will begin operating independently at year’s end following the conclusion of its 36-year partnership with the Detroit Free Press, The News announced Monday.

The move will allow The News to operate more closely with its sister papers in Detroit’s suburbs, including The Oakland Press, the (Royal Oak) Daily Tribune, the Macomb Daily, the (Southgate) News-Herald and others, which share the same ownership as The News.

“Together, we’re uniquely positioned to provide coverage of Metro Detroit like no single news organization can,” said Gary Miles, editor and publisher of The News. “That’s good for readers and advertisers, as well.”

Continuously published since August 1873, The News has been a partner in a joint operating agreement (JOA) with the Free Press that has been run by the Detroit Media Partnership since 1989, through which both Detroit-based newspapers have maintained separate and competitive newsrooms. Their business operations, including production, distribution and advertising, have been jointly run by the partnership.

That partnership, most recently renewed in 2005 with a 20-year term, is set to expire following publication of the Dec. 28 print edition.

“The partnership did what it was intended to do – it preserved two great and distinct media voices during a time of great upheaval in our industry,” Miles said. “We’re excited to return to a landscape in which we operate completely independently for readers and our many partners, producing more of the outstanding journalism they need and expect.”

For three consecutive years, The News has been named the state’s top newspaper by the Michigan Press Association, as judged by journalists in other states.

Founded in 1873 as a smaller, low-cost and independent paper in a time of highly partisan outlets, The Evening News proceeded to mark several firsts in the media industry. It was a pioneer in aerial photography, launched the nation’s first commercial radio station (now WWJ-AM, in 1920), the state’s first television station (now WDIV-TV, Channel 4) and won the nation’s first Pulitzer Prize in photography in 1942. It was the first of its three Pulitzers, considered the top prize in journalism.

The Scripps family sold the Evening News Association to the Gannett Co. in 1986. The owners of The News and Free Press almost immediately filed for federal approval of the JOA, declaring the Free Press a failing newspaper under the Newspaper Preservation Act. The partnership was approved in 1989.

In 2005, Gannett sold The News to MediaNews Group and purchased the Free Press, giving the JOA a 20-year term, which expires on the last Sunday of December.

MediaNews Group acquired The Oakland Press, Macomb Daily, Daily Tribune, News-Herald and Dearborn Press & Guide and Voice newspapers eight years later, but collaboration with The News was limited due to its partnership in the JOA. MediaNews Group owns more than 70 other daily newspapers and more than 100 weekly newspapers across the country.

The Free Press is owned by Gannett Co. Inc., which has managed the Detroit Media Partnership as general partner since 2005.

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