Free Press to stop daily delivery?

By Ed Brayton 12/13/08 10:12 PM

The Wall Street Journal reports that the Detroit Free Press may stop delivering the newspaper four days a week:

Detroit Media Partnership L.P., which operates the Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News, is expected to announce next week that it will cease home delivery of the papers’ print editions on most days of the week, according to people familiar with the company’s thinking.

Detroit Media has not made a final decision, these people said. But the leading scenario set to be unveiled Tuesday calls for the Free Press, the 20th largest U.S. newspaper by weekday circulation, and the News to end home delivery on all but the most lucrative days — Thursday, Friday and Sunday. On the other days, the publisher would sell single copies of an abbreviated print edition at newsstands and direct readers to the papers’ expanded digital editions.

The cutbacks in the mainstream media continue to snowball.

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I prefer to read news headlines by digital edition of newspaper

emil300

The great debate over the future of print vs. online news vividly points out how poor the “experts” eyesight is when looking forward. Amazon.com is full of books written by experts telling how to be successful and how to run successful businesses. Economists have 20/20 eyesight–when looking at history, but fumble in the dark as they crawl into the future. One can envision a group of buggy whip makers sitting around a fireplace bemoaning the future of their businesses, some seeing bright skies, others fearing the death of their industry. The answer to newspapers' future may be clearer than imagined: follow the money. Advertisers are leaving print. They're not coming back. So the debate is not “if,” it's “when.” Online is only one alternative. What used to be a desire for news has now become a desire for “what's happening” for the younger generation. They find this in hundreds of ways, on the fly, all day and night: no need to pay — no need to stay. The Internet is Pandora's box and what's coming out is information. Too much information. The law of supply and demand answers the second half of the riddle.

Who, then, will make all the money? Bill Gates (and Ray Ozzie) and Google. When you find yourself lost deep in a thick, dark forest, you'd pay anything for a reliable and easy-to-use compass.

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Free Press to stop daily delivery?