The Freedom Forum was founded in 1991 when the Gannett Foundation, started by publisher
Frank E. Gannett as a charitable foundation to aid communities where his company had newspapers, sold its name and assets back to
Gannett Company for $670 million. Retired Gannett chairman and
USA Today newspaper founder
Al Neuharth took the money and the shell of the foundation and formed the Freedom Forum. Its mission was to foster "free press, free speech and free spirit."