DEDICATED TO BJ ALUMS FOUNDER HARRY LIGGETT 1930-2014, BJ NEWSROOM LEGEND 1965-1995, AND TO JOHN OLESKY JR., 1932-2024, BJ MAINSTAY 1969-1996 AND BLOG EDITOR 2014-2024. Blog for retired and former Beacon Journal employees and other invited guests.
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Friday, December 12, 2008
Detroit Free Press cuts home delivery most days
The publisher of the Detroit Free Press, the country's 20th largest paper by weekday circulation, is expected to announce next week that it will cease home delivery of the print edition of the newspaper on most days of the week, according to a person familiar with the company's thinking.
The publisher hasn't made a final decision, said this person, 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. 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 Free Press, owned by Gannett Co., and the News, owned by MediaNews Group, form the Detroit Media Partnership LP, which operates both papers under a so-called joint operating agreement.
As of Sept. 30, the Free Press had a weekday circulation of 298,243 papers, including 200,110 home and mail subscribers. The comparable numbers at the News were 178,280 and 97,483.
Click on the headline to read the full story in the Wall Street Journal.
What a shocking end to the great newspaper tradition that has been part of Detroit's history. It doesn't seem that long ago that I was working for the Freep and battling the News for readers. At one point the News had more than 600,000 readers and the Freep 500,000. Now they barely have 500,000 between them. What a sad development, especially for young, aspiring print journalists.
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