Detroit papers to curtail home delivery

The Detroit Free Press and the Detroit News are expected to be the first major metropolitan daily newspapers in the United States to cease home delivery of the paper's print edition. According to a story in the Wall Street Journal, the paper is expected to announce next week that the paper will only be delilvered on Thursday, Friday and Sunday, with a slimmed down newsstand edition available on other days.

The Free Press, owned by Gannett Co. and the News, owned by MediaNews Group, essentially operate as one entity under a joint operating agreement.

Even by industry standards, the Detroit papers have been hit particularly hard, a result of the troubled auto industry's impact on Michigan's economy. Dave Hunke, Detroit Media's chief executive, said in October, "It's time for us to look at some radical departures from our business model."

Weekday circulation has declined 15% at the Free Press and 22% at the News over the past five years, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. As of September, the Free Press had a weekday circulation of 298,243, including 200,110 home and mail subscribers. The comparable numbers at the News were 178,280 and 97,483.

In Canada, the closest comparable move was the decision by the National Post to give up home delivery in the Atlantic Provinces and on the prairies, directing those subscribers to an online version. (Whether any Canadian urban newspapers will follow the Detroit lead is an open question, as they struggle with the double whammy of changing reading, advertising and subscribing habits and the recession-induced decline in advertising lineage.)