It was founded in 1991 by Ashley Capps, Rand Pearson, Ian Blackburn, and Margaret Weston, and was a member of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.
The News Sentinel, Knoxville's daily newspaper, also owned by Scripps, launched a free arts and entertainment supplement in its place.
[2] In November 2014, a group of Knoxville journalists announced plans for Hard Knox Independent, a new alternative weekly to launch in January 2015 that aims to fill the niche formerly occupied by Metro Pulse.
[3][4] Meanwhile, the actual editors of Metro Pulse declined to sign their severance agreements, which included a non-compete clause with the News Sentinel.
Instead, they announced plans to start their own weekly paper, the Knoxville Mercury, utilizing a Kickstarter campaign and donations collected by a non-profit, the Knoxville History Project, for start-up funding.