Top stories
Readers of the Detroit Free Press ranked the top 10 Michigan news stories of 1998 as follows:
- The 1997–98 Detroit Red Wings won the club's second consecutive Stanley Cup championship, sweeping the Washington Capitols in the 1998 Stanley Cup Finals.
- The October 24 demolition of the 87-year-old, 25-story J.L. Hudson building in Detroit.
- The 1997 Michigan Wolverines football team's 21–16 victory over Washington State in the 1998 Rose Bowl, capping an undefeated season and national championship.
- Chrysler's merger with German auto manufacturer Daimler-Benz.
- A sex scandal in Grosse Pointe involving high school seniors having sex with underage girls as young as 14 at drinking parties, leading to criminal prosecutions and a CBS 48 Hours episode focusing on the scandal.
- Right to die advocate Jack Kevorkian on September 17 administered a lethal injection to Thomas Youk, a 42-year-old Waterford Township man in the final stages of ALS. Kevorkian videotaped the voluntary euthanasia and delivered the tape to 60 Minutes which aired it on November 21. Kevorkian was charged with first-degree murder on November 25 and was ultimately convicted by a jury in 1999 of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10–15 years in prison.
- Strikes at parts plants in Flint caused a 54-day shutdown of General Motors and a loss of $2.8 billion.
- The surprise selection of Geoffrey Fieger as the Democratic candidate for governor and his loss to John Engler by a 62–38 margin, despite Fieger spending $5.7 million of his own money on the campaign.
- Northwest Airlines pilots went on strike for 15 days from August 29 to September 13, causing travel disruption throughout the state.
- Construction started on the temporary MGM Grand Detroit casino.
The newspaper's most frequently viewed item on its website was a story reported in late November and early December about a hunter, Mitch Rompola, killing a potential world-record deer with 12 points, a dressed weight of 263 pounds, and an antler spread of 38 inches. A follow-up story in late December reported on readers who believed that, based on the droopy ears on Rompola's buck, that his record-setting deer was a fake.