Stars and Stripes exists to provide independent news and information to the U.S. military community, comprised of active-duty servicemembers, 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. We publish the Stars and Stripes print newspaper edition Monday through Thursday, a special Weekend Edition on Friday for Europe and Pacific, and a separate Mideast edition Friday through Sunday. In addition, we publish several weekly and monthly publications and numerous special supplements. Average daily readers number about 300,000.

 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 newspapers contain all the elements of an American “hometown paper,” from "Dear Abby" to comics, horoscopes, and crossword puzzles.