Detroit Papers to Cut Home Delivery

Freep , News stop delivery on day GM CEO forced out

(NEWSER) - Yesterday was a once-in-a-lifetime news day in Detroit: GM's boss was forced out, Chrysler was pushed to merge with Fiat, Michigan State made it to the Final Four—and the first day that Motor City's two daily newspapers didn't land on doorsteps to tell readers all about it. Both the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press had long chosen Monday to suspend home delivery, replacing a full printed paper with web content and abbreviated editions on newsstands. More»

Team aims to keep it the organization 'of record' even as print product sees its obits

(NEWSER) - There’s a quiet revolution going on at the New York Times, hiding behind all the print-journalism doom and gloom, New York reports. Since 2007, a team of “developers-slash-journalists” has been collaborating with reporters and editors to create interactive web features—like the trippy Election Day Word Train, which lets users pick a word to describe their mood, and the database-driven Casualties of War project. More»

Journalism faces a challenge, but hardly a disaster

(NEWSER) - We know it’s coming, that day when print newspapers cease to exist, but it won’t be this year, right? Maybe, maybe not, Michael Hirschorn writes in the Atlantic, and it wouldn’t necessarily be a disaster. The New York Times is in trouble—it could default on $400 million in debt come May. “Sooner than most of us think,” the Times will be digital-only, Hirschorn predicts. More»

Decline one of the biggest ever

(NEWSER) - Daily newspaper circulation has taken a massive 10.6% drop over the past six months, the Audit Bureau of Circulations said today, while Sunday circulation fell 7.4%. The drop, one of the worst ever, is a potent sign of the industry’s decline, Editor & Publisher reports. Things were especially bad at the USA Today, where circulation is down 17%, knocking the once-top-ranked newspaper down below the Wall Street Journal. More»

(NEWSER) - As newspapers hemorrhage cash, the refrain is getting louder: the Web is sucking away their audiences and can never replicate the serious journalism they offer. The argument sounds familiar, Jack Shafer writes for Slate: It’s the one newspapers used against radio 80 years ago. Radio was then seen as the death of print, delivering reports instantly and allegedly cheapening the “sacred rhetoric” of written journalism. More»