Robert W. McChesney (1952–2025) was a co-founder of Free Press. He was the Gutgsell Endowed Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he taught for two decades. He also taught from 1988 to 1998 at the University of Wisconsin. Among many other honors, he received lifetime-achievement awards from the International Communication Association and the Union for Democratic Communications. McChesney was the author or editor of 27 books, including Rich Media, Poor Democracy; The Problem of the Media; and Digital Disconnect.