'Detroit Free Press' changed its online font and we don't know how to feel about it

By Jack Roskopp

Jul 12, 2017 at 1:28 pm

Audio By Carbonatix

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Part of what makes the Detroit Free Press so iconic is the old English font that adorns the masthead in the print and online publication. For some, the giant "F" is easily as recognizable as the old English "D" that represents the Detroit Tigers.

That's why we were shocked when we saw Crain's journalist Chad Livengood tweet out a screenshot of a new, "Gannet-ized" font at the top of freep.com.

Whoa! @freep's online masthead just got Gannett-ized. The Old English font is gone.https://t.co/RMJ92G8pbx pic.twitter.com/krJpHbZa39
— Chad Livengood (@ChadLivengood) July 12, 2017

Livengood does point out that the print edition still has the classic font that the Free Press has used since the 1830s. The Free Press app and mobile site however still uses the iconic "F."

The font change comes three days after the daily forced its top editor, Robert Huschka, to resign.

The Detroit Free Press has been owned since 2015 by media giant Gannett. Since Gannett has taken over, the Free Press newsroom has lost about two-thirds of its staff.

MT reached out to the Free Press for a comment and will update this post when they reply.