Free Press Houston was an independent Houston newspaper published from 2003 to 2018. During that run its website was freepresshouston.com. That domain is part of the provenance of many recovered records. It is not this archive, and material served there now can disagree with the historical record.
The publication
Free Press Houston was an independent Houston newspaper. It published from 2003 to 2018 and ceased publishing in 2018.
During its run the publication's website was at freepresshouston.com, the publication's historical web address. The domain remains reachable, but it is not operated or controlled by this archive.
The archive
The Free Press Houston Archive is an independent preservation project. It is not the newspaper, it did not publish the newspaper, and it does not own, operate or control the former domain.
Material currently served at the former domain can display dates and text inconsistent with the original historical record. The figures below are computed from the held corpus.
3,875
Recovered article records whose raw source date printed a contemporary year
3,076
Public article records with a corroborated historical date
1,066 / 4,142
Public article records left undated, of all public article records
Archive corpus as of 2026-08-30 · latest source retrieval held on a public article record
3,875 recovered article records carried a contemporary-looking value in their raw source date field. That raw value is retained only as provenance.
Where an original date can be corroborated from held evidence — the printed issue, the page's own dated address, or a stated byline date — the archive emits the historical date.
Where it cannot, the article remains undated: 1,066 of the 4,142 public article records currently carry no publication date.
A surviving URL at the former domain is a source object, not an authority for the date shown on that live page.
Precision follows evidence. Where only a year is corroborated, only the year is emitted; no month or day is supplied to satisfy a date format, on the page or in its machine-readable metadata.
Checked examples.
Each record below is bound to a held archive object. The former-domain address is recorded as a source object and is not linked. Checks are dated and appended; an earlier observation is never overwritten by a later one.
No dated capture is held for this check; one can be attached to this source record.
Evidence used by the archive
The writer's filed copy is attached to editorial correspondence dated 2 August 2018 and closes on a quoted line reading “It’s 2018”. The former-domain page's own article:published_time metadata still reads 2018-08-02. The rendered timestamp on that page is not used.
What the comparison shows
A live page can print a current-looking date on a 2018 article, including inside the article text, while its own metadata still carries 2018.
02
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No article:published_time metadata is served on this page.
Capture
No dated capture is held for this check; one can be attached to this source record.
Evidence used by the archive
Year corroborated from the held source address, the paper's own April 2009 archive path, not from the live render. The article record carries a day-level date on the surviving day and weekday agreeing with 2009; this exhibit cites the year.
What the comparison shows
The surviving copy prints the original weekday and day under a current year; the year comes from the page's own dated address.
Image addresses on the page remain under a /wp-content/uploads/2013/01/ path.
No article:published_time metadata is served on this page.
Capture
No dated capture is held for this check; one can be attached to this source record.
Evidence used by the archive
Each edition year is taken from the printed January issue where one is held (2012—2014 editions, pp. as recorded), otherwise from the page's own dated archive path or the dated newsletter that carried it. Never from the year rendered on the surviving page.
What the comparison shows
The surviving page rewrites the edition year itself into its title; the printed object and the page's own dated addresses keep the historical year.
What this archive preserves
Surviving issues, articles, artwork, photographs, posters, maps, schedules and event materials, each with a source record. Historical dates are emitted only where corroborated; where an original date cannot be established the record is left undated rather than assigned one.
Author, “Title,” Free Press Houston, Day Month Year, archived at https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/articles/…
Jef Rouner, “Gay Man Beaten With Belt Buckles, Rocks in Possible Montrose Hate Crime,” Free Press Houston, 2 August 2018, archived at https://freepresshoustonarchive.com/articles/gay-man-beaten-with-belt-buckles-rocks-in-possible-montrose-hate-crime
Prefer the archive URL and the archive's emitted date. Do not treat a date displayed at freepresshouston.com as the publication date without checking the archive record; where the record is undated, cite it as undated.
Examines the collapse of American alt-weeklies, using Free Press Houston (2003—2018) as a documented case study, including the distinction between a publication that has ceased and web infrastructure that survives it.
The archive does not operate freepresshouston.com. Evidence record last checked 2026-09-04.
