Will only one newspaper be left standing?
Will only one newspaper be left standing? (Twitter photo by Melody Malosh)
Over the past few decades, we've seen two-newspaper cities like Cleveland, Buffalo, Los Angeles, Denver, Baltimore and Miami, slowly shed one of those papers.
Detroit has managed to avoid that trend. But for how much longer?
Just recently both papers announced plans to reduce staff to offset declining ad revenues, leading to speculation on the future of this two-newspaper town.
Tom Anderson and Dustin Walsh of Crain's Detroit Business report:
Until 2018, both papers must continue publishing under terms of their joint operating agreement, but persistent losses would allow the papers to end the agreement and possibly pull the plug on one paper, presumably The News, after that.
Some think it's likely the days of Detroit being a two-newspaper town are numbered.
"I see a high likelihood Detroit will be a one-paper town within the next couple of years," Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst with the St. Petersburg, Fla.-based Poynter Institute, tells Crain's after the Free Press joined The News in seeking job cuts.
Carole Leigh Hutton, former publisher of the Free Press, doesn't think it's time to write the obituary yet for one of the papers. She tells Crain's that it's possible Detroit could have two newspapers for years to come.
Her thought is that losses would be less with two papers.
"You have to do the numbers. It looks easy from the outside (to kill one). But what are your revenue losses if you give one up?" she said. "How much less do you have to charge for advertising? How many advertisers want both papers? How much of The News' audience can the Free Press attract?"
