Missing from the doorsteps and driveways of many Michigan homes Monday morning: newspapers.
In a bold but risky move aimed at ensuring their survival in the digital age, The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press are reducing home delivery to the three days a week most popular with advertisers — Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. Slimmed-down newspapers, sold at regular prices, will be available in news racks and convenience stores the other four days.
The Detroit publishers hope to cut costs significantly, without sacrificing newsroom staff, to survive a recession that has exacerbated losses from ads shifting to the Internet. Millions of dollars in advertising have eroded over the past year in a city and state being hammered by foreclosures, high unemployment and the near-collapse of the auto industry. [Click for MORE]
It's official: The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, will become the first major U.S. newspapers to cease seven-day home delivery. The news was announced by the Detroit Media Partnership, the agency controlling the interests of both the Gannett and Media News papers, at a press conference this morning in the Motor City.
The confirmation comes after several days of speculation, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, about a fundamental change in the business model for the struggling Free Press and News. The papers work together in all matters other than editorial under a Joint Operating Agreement. The change is expected to happen in the first quarter of 2009.
The highlights of the plan:
• Goodbye to every day delivery: Both papers will cease seven-day home delivery to all subscribers as they begin transitioning to more online delivery of news.
• Hello to three-day delivery: The JOA will instead focus on Thursday and Friday delivery of both papers and Sunday delivery of the Free Press only. Those days are the most lucrative for advertising and have often been considered in the newspaper world as the “money” days for both sales and circulation.
• Get it on the newsstand: The papers will offer single copy editions six days of the week; only the Free Press will publish a Sunday single copy edition.
• A new pricing model for subscriptions and a push to online: Seven days of access to an e-edition would also include the three days of home delivery. [Click for MORE]
Here comes The New York Times, now reporting: "The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News are planning to stop home delivery most days of the week and print a pared-down version of their papers for newsstands on those days, according to people briefed on the plans. They will be the first major dailies in the country to take such drastic steps."
The Wall Street Journalreported earlier that Gannett hasn't made a final decision. The paper cites a source it did not identify. "But the leading scenario set to be unveiled Tuesday would call for the Free Press and its partner paper, The Detroit News, to end home delivery on all but the most lucrative days -- Thursday, Friday and Sunday," the WSJ says. "On the other days, the publisher would sell single copies of an abbreviated print edition at newsstands and direct readers to the papers' expanded digital editions."
The changes are likely to result in significant job cuts, the story says. "Because the Detroit papers will continue to publish daily electronic versions, the cuts are expected to come mostly, if not entirely, from outside the newsroom, according to sources," the WSJ says.
Under an agreement this week with labor unions, Gannett'sbroadcast flagship will become the first station in a major market to replace crews with one-person "multimedia journalists," who shoot and edit stories single-handedly, The Washington Postsays today. The station -- which is running last in the local ratings -- also plans an across-the-board cut in reporters' salaries as it increases their responsibilities. Multimedia journalists will earn 30% to 50% less than what traditional reporters have been earning, with salaries topping out at around $90,000 annually, the Post says, citing sources it doesn't identify at the station.
Sphere: Related Content
> In this fast-paced course, beginning journalists learn to interview sources, gather and compile information into accurate, ethical, interesting stories for print, online and broadcast. Students will cover campus and community events, interview interesting people and write at least one story for print and one for the web to submit to the campus or community newspaper. This required course for all journalism majors is also a great preparation for anyone who wants to enhance critical thinking and writing skills, preparing for careers in journalism as well as law, politics and many other fields.
Required Texts:
"Writing and Reporting for the Media," Fifth Edition, by Carole Rich, and The "Associated Press Stylebook." Both texts may be purchased at the Moorpark College Bookstore and online.
"[Edna's] idea of a successful lead is one that might cause a reader who is having breakfast with his wife to 'spit out his coffee, clutch his chest, and say, "My God, Martha! Did you read this!"' When Edna went to Fort Lauderdale not long ago to talk about police reporting with some of the young reporters in the Herald's Broward County bureau, she said, 'For sanity and survival, there are three cardinal rules in the newsroom:Never trust an editor, never trust an editor, never trust an editor.'" --Calvin Trillin's profile of legendary Miami Herald cops reporter Edna Buchanan, The New Yorker, 1986
Posts
