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E-mail a friendYOUNG VOICES
The Beginning of the End
As if my head isn't spinning enough with all of the news coming out of my hometown, today the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News announced they would end daily home delivery, making them the first major metropolitan newspapers in the country to do so.
Beginning in the spring, the papers will continue to be available at newsstands, at stores and, of course, on the Web. But the papers will deliver to homes only on Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays.
The Detroit Media Partnership, which operates both papers, gives several reasons for the change, but there is one reason that has implications for the rest of the industry: "The future of news and information delivery is electronic, and we are focusing our considerable resources - and Michigan's largest news-gathering staffs - on serving those changing needs, while also maintaining seven day newspapers."
At the end of the day, the move makes perfect sense. U.S. newspapers have been struggling for a while. And I'm sure I'm not alone when I say that this is likely the beginning of the end for newspapers as we know them.
Either way, the announcement certainly gives new meaning to going "paperless."
(As evidence of their new digital focus, the media partnership produced a Web video about the changes - see below).