The World’s Biggest Story Is On Your Doorstep And You’re Not Doing Home Delivery!

Philip M. Stone January 7, 2010 Follow on Twitter

That Christmas day attempt to blow up a plane flying into Detroit was the world’s biggest news story, but right there in Detroit if you wanted to read in print all about it the next day then out you had to go in the freezing cold to your local newsstand to pick up either one of your local newspapers, or subscribers could have accessed an electronic version in warmth at home, but there would be no hard-copy newspaper on your doorstep, for Saturday is one of those days that neither Detroit newspaper home delivers.

And the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press make no apology for losing out on delivering those editions home, or indeed other huge Detroit stories during the year that didn’t make home delivery such as the day the White House forced out the chairman of General Motors, or it became known that Washington favored a Chrysler-Fiat hook-up. 

Paul Anger, editor and publisher of the Free Press, told the New York Times, “We don’t feel like we have to do an edition that would be delivered to home. This is not that kind of world anymore is the way we look at it. This is the digital age.” As further proof the newspapers have announced their availability via Kindle.

Now we all understand the economics of why the Detroit Media Partnership back in March decided to drastically cut costs by reducing home delivery for The Free Press on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays with the Detroit News being delivered just on Thursdays and Fridays, but that really goes against the commonly-accepted grain today that news should be delivered to readers on the platform they want. If that means home delivery seven days a week then so be it and if the advertising model won’t support that cost then the subscription cost needs to go up, perhaps substantially. It’s being done elsewhere – Dallas for instance – so why not Detroit?

And there was a thirst for newspapers in Detroit because of that plane incident. Sales at the airport in particular went through the roof – to be expected – and additional copies had to be delivered.  And the web sites for both newspapers saw dramatic increases in traffic, but probably not all of that came from Detroit.

But can the Detroit Media Partnership truly say it served its community on that Saturday? Sure, there’s no way that on Christmas day of all days newspapers can  arrange a special Saturday home delivery edition – no, the question must go back to whether stopping home delivery on some days is serving the community.

Anger makes clear he sees the world as “digital” these days – if that is really the case then why do the Detroit newspapers even bother delivering three days a week?  It would be interesting to see a poll these days of whether those who now trek out to the newsstand for their print fix would be willing to pay for the comfort of home delivery. Surely advertisers would be much happier knowing they have a captive audience rather than going through spikes on heavy news days although the newspaper partnership would probably counter that the Thursday, Friday and Sunday papers that are home-delivered carry about 80% of the total week’s advertising.

Editorially, the newspapers have shone this year.  In April the Free Press won a Pulitzer Prize for local reporting that led to the mayor’s resignation and his subsequent jailing. Anger himself was named the National Press Foundation’s editor-of-the year named after Benjamin C. Bradlee, the famed Washington Post Watergate-era editor.

Gannett owns the Free Press and Media News owns the Detroit News, and the joint business operations are covered by the Detroit Media partnership which is said to have lost millions of dollars last year and is not expected to be profitable this year, either. A sign that even with the home delivery cutbacks that all is still not well economically is that the Partnership has gotten the newsrooms at both newspapers to agree to one week unpaid furloughs in exchange for a no lay-off guarantee through the spring.

Life is particularly hard in Michigan these days with very high unemployment; the auto business continues to be decimated (except for Ford that saw a national 33% sales increase in December – a reward for not taking a government bailout?).  So in such an economic climate management probably figured it had to go to delivery extremes to survive while still churning out decent editorial coverage. But one can’t help but feel for those reporters working that huge Christmas Day story who knew their efforts would not be delivered to the community’s doorsteps – that’s tough not only for them and their editors, but also for Detroit.