DETROIT — Fighting to stay in business, Detroit’s two daily newspapers will radically change their relationship with readers by slashing home delivery to three days a week, printing small editions on other days and encouraging people to get information online.
By curtailing home delivery on certain days, the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News reduce printing, fuel and labor expenses for editions that tend to attract fewer advertisements.
The News is owned by Denver-based ap, which also owns The Denver Post. Media News chief executive William Dean Singleton said no such changes are planned for Denver.
“There are no plans to change the frequency model in Denver or anyplace else” that MediaNews operates, Singleton said.
The CEO of the Detroit Media Partnership, which runs the Free Press and News, said the move announced Tuesday was not an experiment.
“I don’t think we’re ever going back,” said David Hunke, who also is publisher of the Free Press, owned by Gannett Co. If it fails, “I’m fired, and I may have led two great institutions down the wrong path. It’s a huge risk. It’s disruptive to folks. I understand that.”
