Detroit newspapers losing "daily" tag?

Why not? The Tuesday paper has always been skimpy even in good times and even in wealthy markets, yet it's always sold for the same price as the fat Friday paper. Nobody charges by the page. And generally, a 16-page 5K daily has sold for the same price as an 80-page metro.

 

I take my iPod touch to the cone of contemplation with me all the time. As long as I have a Wi-Fi connection, I'm gold. As it were.

 

Just don't drop it.
[/crossthreading]

 

From the pipeline ... the key here is that the move is saving "tens of millions of dollars." That'll keep things going for quite a while. And that they're not reducing newsroom staff and plan to do even more stuff editorially. I do agree though, that the solution would be to ditch the News and just move the people over and beef up the Free Press staff. Apparently, though, that's not in the cards, at least initially.

 

although it sucks,what was the alternative..another one paper only town.....i love having my hands on the paper,but i am 51..a dinosaur...at least they saved one of the paper temporarily and did not do away with the sports columnist position or pull a dallas deal with one guy doing beats for both.......this is like the Tigers pitching staff....it shows up 3 out of 7 days

 

Sure they are. Until Dean needs to make another debt payment and Gannett's profits drop below 15 percent.

 

And you work for a paper? What's wrong with actually reading the paper product?

 

Damn, you're brillant. Why the hell aren't YOU the one running that operation?

Oh, yeah, cause you'd have to take a pay cut. I forgot. My bad.

It is a seriously damn good idea, though.

 

Will this move dissolve the JOA as we know it?

 

They say there are going to be no newsroom cuts, but what do you do with page designers when you are putting out a "compact" edition four days a week? And is it more, or does designing a traditional newspaper (or e-edition) to put on the Web seem a little strange.

 

There's nothing wrong, per se, with reading the paper product. But if I have a choice between reading content that is at best 6 hours old and reading something that might have been updated a few minutes ago, well, I'm going to read what was updated a few minutes ago. I got spoiled by having the wire at my desk when I worked for a newspaper, I guess.

This is why I'm in favor of turning the print product into an analysis/long-form vehicle, something with a shelf life.

The conundrum we face is pretty simple: Print is one of the best delivery methods for advertising; however, the Web is the best delivery method for breaking news.

The PDF e-edition, I think, is a transitional tool. It's structured just like a newspaper, and if you're so inclined, you can print it out (just bring along your reading glasses.) For me, if I'm reading the news on the web, I want to read a web site, with links and photo galleries and stuff.

 

No, they say. But Gannett owns 95% of the JOA now so if it wanted to dissolve the JOA at any point, presumably it could. I'm still not figuring out how keeping two papers and two staffs going saves any money at all. But there could be a lot of fine print in the JOA that no one knows about. Like the News' circulation has to fall to a certain point before Gannett could off them or something.