Serving the U.S. Military

Stars and Stripes exists to provide independent news and information to the U.S. military community, comprised of active-duty, DoD civilians, contractors, and their families. Unique among the many Department of Defense authorized news outlets, only Stars and Stripes is guaranteed First Amendment privileges that are subject to Congressional oversight.*

Stars and Stripes has published a newspaper continuously since World War II. Our unique military coverage first became available online in 1999. Today, Stars and Stripes operates as a multimedia news organization. In addition to Stripes.com, we publish four daily newspaper editions (Mideast, Europe, Japan and Korea), several weekly and monthly publications, and numerous special supplements. Average daily readers number about 420,000.



Stars and Stripes maintains news bureaus in Europe, Pacific and the Middle East to provide first-hand reporting on events in those theaters. In addition to news and sports, Stars and Stripes print editions contain all the elements of an American “hometown paper,” from "Dear Abby" to comics, horoscopes, and crossword puzzles.

The Mideast edition is command-sponsored and distributed at no charge to forces stationed in war zones. The other editions are for sale on base in coin boxes and at military exchanges. Home delivery to subscribers is available in Belgium, England, Germany, Guam, Italy, Japan, Korea, Spain and Turkey.

Other Stars and Stripes publications include its annual publication Heroes, and special supplements focused on such topics as education, insurance, retirement planning, and travel. Welcome to Europe Guide is published three times annually; Destination Paradise is published for the Pacific community twice a year.
The first Stars and Stripes was published briefly by Union troops during the Civil War. The predecessor of today’s paper appeared during World War I, then again in World War II.

Since the last world war, Stars and Stripes newspaper has published continuously (1942 in Europe; 1945 in the Pacific). Stripes reporters have served right beside American soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen in Korea, Vietnam, the first Gulf War, Bosnia and Kosovo. Reporters have been on assignment in the Middle East since 2001 and covered the military’s humanitarian efforts in the aftermath of the 2005 tsunami and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.