Both Detroit daily papers, the Free Press and The Detroit News, say they’re making a big change come March. Â They’ll only throw the hard copy to the doorstep on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. Â They’ll still sell copies at newsstands every day, but if you want the dead tree version on a Tuesday you’ll have to go get it. Â “I don’t think we’re ever going back,” said David Hunke, who is publisher of the Free Press and also heads the JOA which manages the business sides of both papers. Â They also say they’re going to put more focus on their sites.
On Freep.com they’re calling it a “groundbreaking move for newspapers.” Â It’s a big move, but I don’t know that it qualifies as groundbreaking. Â The Christian Science Monitor recently said it will kill its print edition in April and the Capital Times in Madison dumped its print edition earlier this year. Â The real question for the Detroit papers–which both lost subscribers over the past year–is whether this will keep them in business long-term.