Wilbur Fisk Storey (December 19, 1819 – October 27, 1884) was an American journalist and newspaper publisher who was instrumental in the growth of the Detroit Free Press and the Chicago Times.

[1] In 1838, Storey moved West to La Porte, Indiana to launch a newspaper of his own, a Democratic paper edited by future United States Senator Edward A.

In 1849, new Whig President Zachary Taylor exercised his power of political patronage and removed the Democrat Storey from the postmaster position.

[1] He was chosen the year following a member of the Michigan constitutional convention,[1] and was subsequently appointed state prison inspector.

General Ambrose Burnside shut it down in 1863 for two days, but loyalists complained about the suppression of freedom of the press, and Lincoln quickly lifted the ban on the paper's publication.

[5] The editorialist of the Republican Mattoon Gazette colorfully memorialized the passing of the publisher of his paper's political rival: Having lived the life of an Ishmaelite [outcast], ...there are almost none who mourn at his death; yet it is a fact he has left a mark upon the journalism of the country as deep as any newspaper manager in America.

Master of his own fortunes and an empty pocket at 12 years he wrestled long with fate before he gained a competence, although at his death he was worth a million.

He was without conscience, without any sense of propriety, had no regard for morality, decency, or the good name of any living creature in his desire to give "the news."

Six years before his death his mind gave way, and for many months he had been an imbecile, whose conception was too feeble to comprehend the audacity of those who had already begun a quarrel over the property accumulated by his own individual effort before he was borne away to his unhonored grave.