Today the Detroit Free Press, my former employer and a newspaper that is still dear to my heart, announced it will drop daily home delivery in March as a cost-cutting move. The plan has been in the works for months, as most of us were aware of some super secret project that was more outrageous than any of us could dream of.
The paper will still be sold at newsstands seven days a week, and will be available for home delivery on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. The move is somewhat bold, as this is the largest daily paper to drop daily home delivery. However, several other publications have done so. (This also applies to the Detroit News, which is the competition but a newspaper published as part of the joint operating agreement between the two papers.)
More changes are in store. I believe the redesigned version that is sold on newsstands will be quite different than what is published today.
So where are the cost savings? Well, they won't be printing as many papers each day, which means less money is spent on newsprint and overall production costs. The production staff will be reduced by 9 percent. Right now they don't anticipate any newsroom layoffs. Read more about it at freep.com.
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