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The ''Jackson Free Press'', referred to often as simply "JFP", is a for-profit community magazine available free of charge at various retail establishments in
Jackson, Mississippi Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the Capital city, capital of and the List of municipalities in Mississippi, most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, Mississippi, ...
founded in 2002 and owned by Mississippi native
Donna Ladd Donna K. Ladd (born October 9, 1961) is an American investigative journalist who co-founded the '' Jackson Free Press'', a community magazine,Kuldell, Heather (2007-06-15). "AAN Announces AltWeekly Awards Winners". Association of Alternative Newsm ...
and author and technology expert
Todd Stauffer Todd Stauffer is co-founder and publisher of the Jackson Free Press in Jackson, Mississippi, and author of 40 nonfiction books on a variety of computer-related topics. He lives with his partner, journalist and editor Donna Ladd. Stauffer and Ladd s ...
. It is currently the only member of the
Association of Alternative Newsweeklies The Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN) is a trade association of alternative weekly newspapers in North America. It provides services to many generally liberal or progressive weekly newspapers across the United States and in Canada. AA ...
(AAN) in the state of
Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
. It is known locally for its annual Best of Jackson awards as nominated by its readers and its online political blogs. It also has sponsored numerous local events such as the Fondren ArtMix, JubileeJam, the Chick Ball, the "Race, Religion & Society Series" and the Crossroads Film Festival. The publication's name is based on the ''Mississippi Free Press'', a civil rights movement newspaper started by a multiracial coalition including
Medgar Evers Medgar Wiley Evers (; July 2, 1925June 12, 1963) was an American civil rights activist and the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, who was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith. Evers, a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran who had served i ...
, Rev. R.L.T. Smith, and printed by white newspaper publisher
Hazel Brannon Smith Hazel Freeman Smith (née Brannon; February 4, 1914 – May 15, 1994) was an American journalist and publisher, the owner and editor of four weekly newspapers in rural Mississippi, mostly in Holmes County. Her newspapers included the ''Lexingt ...
.The Jackson Free Press FAQ
/ref> In its first four years of publication, JFP won 14 national writing awards from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies. In July 2005, a team of JFP journalists, led by editor
Donna Ladd Donna K. Ladd (born October 9, 1961) is an American investigative journalist who co-founded the '' Jackson Free Press'', a community magazine,Kuldell, Heather (2007-06-15). "AAN Announces AltWeekly Awards Winners". Association of Alternative Newsm ...
, joined Thomas Moore and
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
filmmaker David Ridgen in a trip to Moore's hometown of
Meadville, Mississippi Meadville is a town in and the county seat of Franklin County, Mississippi, United States, in the southwest part of the state. The population was 449 at the 2010 census, down from 519 at the 2000 census. It is situated north of the Homochitto Riv ...
to investigate and call for justice for the 1964 KKK murders of his brother Charles, and his friend Henry Dee. In the paper's story about the trip, published July 20, 2005, JFP revealed that the lead suspect,
James Ford Seale James Ford Seale (June 25, 1935 – August 2, 2011) was a Ku Klux Klan member charged by the U.S. Justice Department on January 24, 2007, and subsequently convicted on June 14, 2007, for the May 1964 kidnapping and murder of Henry Hezekiah Dee an ...
, was alive and living in the area, although other media outlets had reported that he was no longer alive. In January 2007, the Justice Department announced that Seale had been indicted for federal kidnapping and conspiracy charges in connection with the case. The publication has also attracted attention with its dogged coverage of Jackson mayor
Frank Melton Frank Ervin Melton (March 19, 1949 – May 7, 2009) was the mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, United States, from 4 July 2005 until his death on 7 May 2009. Melton, an African American, defeated the city's first black mayor Harvey Johnson, Jr ...
. JFP's Adam Lynch broke the story on the publication's web site that the mayor had taken a group of young men to bust up an alleged "drughouse" with sledgehammers. That revelation led to the indictment of the mayor and his bodyguards on multiple criminal charges. They were eventually found not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing by a jury. The ''Jackson Free Press'' launched its active Web site with multiple blogs in 2002. As the publication is a twice a month magazine, the website provides immediate breaking news and forums for discussions on news appearing in the print version and topics posted by readers. In 2006, the JFP joined with eight other publishers in the Jackson area to form the Mississippi Independent Publishers Alliance (MIPA) to challenge the Gannett Corp.'s TDN distribution scheme to control local distribution. The JFP's efforts to fight the scheme, which was blasted by ''
Editor & Publisher ''Editor & Publisher'' (''E&P'') is an American monthly trade news magazine covering the newspaper industry. Published since 1901, ''Editor & Publisher'' is the self-described "bible of the newspaper industry." Originally based in New York City, ...
'' magazine as a violation of independent publication's First Amendment rights, was written up in media across the country. JFP started a blog called the ''Goliath Blog'' to chronicle MIPA's successes in the battle and the national media coverage of the issue. MIPA efforts led to an investigation of the strategy by Mississippi Attorney General
Jim Hood James Matthew Hood (born May 15, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 39th Attorney General of Mississippi from 2004 to 2020. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he was first elected in 20 ...
. In 2022, the JFP's journalism assets were sold by Jackson Free Press, Inc., to the Mississippi Journalism and Education Group, a Mississippi non-profit corporation that owns and operates the Mississippi Free Press, and statewide journalism outlet founded by Jackson Free Press co-founder Donna Ladd and former Jackson Free Press Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin.


See also

*
List of alternative weekly newspapers This is a list of alternative newspapers by country. Canada Alberta *''Vue Weekly'', Edmonton. Final issue published November, 2018. Now online. British Columbia *''The Georgia Straight'', Vancouver *''Monday Magazine'', Victoria Manitoba *'' ...


References


External links

* {{Jackson, Mississippi Newspapers published in Mississippi Mass media in Jackson, Mississippi