The Toledo Free Press is a project of Toledo Integrated Media Education. Click here to learn more about the Toledo Free Press board and governance. We are a proud member of the Institute for Nonprofit News (INN).

For those with a stake in Northwest Ohio — people looking to thrive where they live, and those who want to keep their finger on the pulse of what makes the Glass City and its surrounding communities a place worth living, working and visiting — the Toledo Free Press is your essential source of information.

We are not a new media organization: We have roots in Toledo, going back to 2005 when it was founded by publisher Tom Pounds. But, in 2015 it went dark for nearly a decade, and now we are back and ready to hit the ground to report on our community.

We believe in a free press that offers civic information is good for Toledo, and it’s good for our democracy. That is why our mission is to help the community become more engaged, better informed and more civically aware.

The Free Press is financially supported by a diversified business model that includes our membership small donor program; major donations from individuals and foundations; corporate sponsors; and advertisers.

We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Editorial decisions are made by journalists alone and are not influenced by donors or advertisers.

The Free Press is striving to create a robust subscription membership program we hope will support our work and our mission.

We are working to create a program that will offer perks, from receiving our weekly newsletter that will offer inside looks on how our stories were created, to special invites at a coffee shop with select members of our staff, to getting a really cool TFP t-shirt.

As a nonprofit organization, the Toledo Free Press does not have an owner and is instead governed by an independent, volunteer board of directors who believe deeply in our mission and in the importance of public service journalism. They approve budgets and oversee the editor-in-chief.