Detroit Free Press initiative: possibly succeeding

Posted by Caroline Huber on April 30, 2009 at 4:11 PM

Facing financial difficulties, a month ago the Detroit Free Press decided to limit home delivery of its paper to only three days a week, to print small editions on other days, and to encourage people to get information online. Poynter reporter Bill Mitchell takes a look at how Detroit's initiative is progressing so far, saying that "readership of the e-edition is up -- a lot -- and cancellations of print and online combo subscriptions haven't been as massive as feared."

Since the change, only half as many subscribers have canceled as was projected, and papers are re-starting those subscriptions at a rate of 100 per day. About 6,300 people have been willing to triple their subscription price to have the paper delivered on the days home delivery is normally not offered. The paper's e-editions, which are different from the web sites, attract 30,000 people per day and 3 million page views a week, and the traffic to the web sites has increased.

So far, the e-edition of the paper--a PDF replica of the printed version that enables users to print and e-mail articles--is only offered on the web, but as its popularity rises, Detroit hopes to introduce it on Amazon's Kindle by mid-May and test it on Plastic Logic this summer. E-papers were only generating 5,000 to 6,000 readers before Detroit reduced delivery and now attract 30,000 on the days newspapers are not delivered.

Still, one month is not yet a trend points out Janet Hasson, senior vice president for audience development and strategy at the Detroit Media Partnership. DMP CEO and Free Press publisher David Hunke says that in order for the initiative to prove successful they must achieve positive cash flow by the end of the year. While the decrease in print editions saves money, it will be advertising that actually makes money, and in the present financial climate, many newspapers are having difficulties generating ad revenue. Detroit's reduced delivery plan was designed to focus on the days about which advertisers care most, Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.

When Detroit announced its strategy last month, many probably considered it a measure towards survival but not success. It seems safe to say that, as of now, Detroit's plan has at least not been a failure, and the end of the year will tell whether it has been a success. Hasson points out that the timing might have been crucial. "If we had done this two years ago, I don't know if the tolerance would have been there," she said. "We announced this in December and then there was a slew of papers that either said they were entering bankruptcy or they were getting ready to close ... People seemed to be telling us, 'If this is going to ensure you'll survive, I'll try to change with you.' "

Source: Poynter Online