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Detroit Daily Press hiatus

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Peg McNichol, Nov 27, 2009.

  1. Hank_Scorpio

    Hank_Scorpio Active Member

    Eh, this one has veered off the DDP a bit toward Ann Arbor.
     
  2. TwoGloves

    TwoGloves Well-Known Member

    Apparently, not everybody on the staff was paid:

    http://freefromeditors.blogspot.com/
     
  3. Peg McNichol

    Peg McNichol Member

    ... or perhaps hasn't received the check. I was in the newsroom Saturday when the checks arrived, saw the stack from which mine was pulled. We have second checks due later this week.

    Anyone who hasn't seen check No. 1 should call the newsroom and let the Sterns know so the problem can be resolved.
     
  4. Magic In The Night

    Magic In The Night Active Member

    The thing that was never clear to me about this newspaper is that one of the reasons the Free Press and the News stopped daily delivery is to save on the huge cost of it. If two newspapers the size of the Freep and the News, backed by a mega-corporation the size of Gannett can't afford the delivery/distribution costs in this newspaper environment and poor economy, how in the world does a startup afford it? That's what I never got.
     
  5. Peg McNichol

    Peg McNichol Member

    A few reasons:
    - As a non-union shop, wages were lower (though higher than what small non-union dailies pay)
    - Those of us who took jobs knew we'd have to find health care coverage (and long / short-term disability coverage) elsewhere, at least initially
    - Much, much smaller staff than at the big dailies, despite the job shedding going on downtown.
    - By contracting out certain areas (printing, for example) they didn't have to deal with associated management and overhead costs, etc. because they effectively rented the production function only for the time needed

    I think those are the main elements.
     
  6. WolvEagle

    WolvEagle Well-Known Member

    Interesting blog from James Briggs, who left a steady job at annarbor.com to join the Daily Press. James is a good guy - I've worked with him before.
    -----------
    The Detroit Daily Press was fool's gold
    by James Briggs
    I’ll remember my week at the here-today-gone-tomorrow Detroit Daily Press as the week I didn’t see my wife.
    Hired to cover the Lions and Red Wings for the Daily Press, I logged (well, that’s probably not the right word, since my hourly count held no relation to payment) about 80 hours, not counting the mandatory pro bono work prior to Nov. 19, and filed 14 articles. I was not scheduled for a day off at the time of the Daily Press’ demise.

    Perhaps that should have been a clue that the Daily Press wouldn’t appear on anyone’s best-places-to-work list. But to the extent that I was responsible for the startup newspaper’s success, I reasoned, I’d take a paper route if the paper needed me to (apparently it did).

    I received word via Facebook that the Daily Press had ceased publication on Friday, while I was at Ford Field for a high-school football state final. My initial reaction was not horror – that came later – but rather relief. I called my wife and told her I’d get to spend the rest of Thanksgiving weekend with her.

    Daily Press photo editor Rodney Curtis expressed similar relief in his blog, saying:

    It seems my family is happy to have me back. Even if I’m not adding money to the coffers. Christmas won’t be, how shall we say, overly extravagant this year but the crazy enigmatic smile on my daughter’s face when she heard the paper closed after only five days of publication said it all. There was good and bad in that smile. Mostly good though. She just didn’t want to overly show how gleeful she was that Mr. Grumpy Puss had gone into hibernation and possible extinction.

    What went wrong with the Daily Press?
    The most commonly cited reasons for the paper’s failure have been advertising (there wasn’t any) and distribution (ditto). Reporter Wendy Clem has written a piece suggesting intimidation from outside influences led to circulation problems.

    She might be right. But even if she is, it doesn’t matter.
    At the end of the day, the Daily Press arose with neither the technological nor human infrastructures in place to get the job done. The newspaper chewed up its staff like a piece of gum and spit it out when the flavor had subsided. I think the paper turned out well for five days, but we wouldn’t have had the stamina to keep it up.

    You could argue these words come from a jilted employee, and you’d be right. Almost immediately after I gave up a job I liked at AnnArbor.com, the broken promises began. “Give your previous employer whatever they need” became “we need to be your priority now.” A promised five-day work week became a joke – the Daily Press couldn’t fill its sports section unless I worked from morning until, well, the next morning.

    While I might sound angry at the newspaper, I’m not. I’m angry at myself in the same way you might get angry if you fell for a Nigerian scam. You knew it was too good to be true, but you let greed take over and wash away common sense.

    You vividly remember the last possible moment you could have backed out, when all your analytical instincts were screaming at you to walk away, and you want that moment back. But you – I – didn’t listen, and the moment passed. Now, all that’s left is getting over the embarrassment and moving on.

    When I first heard about the Detroit Daily Press, I said it had no chance. Yet, when the paper offered me a job, I drowned my logic and dove for the scam. All of us who came on board made up reasons to believe this newspaper somehow would persist when all evidence suggested the battle was hopeless.

    That’s how it is when you’re addicted to something. And I’m more convinced than ever that print journalism is a drug for those who love it.

    Some of my colleagues remain hooked on the drug, believing the presses will roll again in January. But the Daily Press isn’t coming back. If you can’t sell advertising the week of Thanksgiving, how will you do it in January, the worst month of the year in terms of newspaper revenue?

    The Detroit Daily Press was fool’s gold for dozens of people clinging to the hope that newspapers could still succeed in these-here hills, long after the hills had proved barren.

    I gave up a job and poured every ounce of energy into dredging up that fantasy, and walked away with a check for $344 and the promise of another soon-to-come check.

    On the plus side, I suppose that’s more than anyone ever recouped from a Nigerian scam.
     
  7. Hank_Scorpio

    Hank_Scorpio Active Member

    That's kind of interesting that they'd have someone cover the Lions and the Red Wings. Lot of overlap in those sports seasons. Might have made more sense for someone to cover the Tigers and then the Lions or Red Wings.

    Hard to expect someone to do a great job on either beat with so much overlap.



    So, the employees are going to get two paychecks. I take it that checks won't be issued again until after the re-publication in January (if it comes back)?
     
  8. WolvEagle

    WolvEagle Well-Known Member

    Still no word on the Detroit Daily Press' revival, per Crain's Detroit Business:

    http://www.crainsdetroit.com/section/c?template=profile&uid=140106&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckUserId=140106&plckPostId=Blog%3a140106Post%3a3a1530e3-1c80-4cd4-973a-64707277990e&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest
     
  9. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    I'm not commenting on the specifics of the Ann Arbor situation, but a profitable business -- or business unit -- could be shut down if future revenue projections show it losing money in the near future.
     
  10. WolvEagle

    WolvEagle Well-Known Member

    Looks like we won't be seeing the Detroit Daily Press again. I'm not surprised.
    -------------
    New Detroit newspaper won't resume publication



    ROYAL OAK, Mich. (AP) -- A new Detroit-area newspaper that suspended operations after less than a week in November says it won't resume publication as planned.

    Detroit Daily Press co-publisher Mark Stern in a statement Saturday blamed "circulation issues" for the paper's failure to publish again. The paper had said in November it planned to resume publication after Jan. 1.

    The statement said suspension of publication will be permanent "for now."

    The paper hit the streets Nov. 23 but said Nov. 27 there had been a lack of advertising, sales and distribution.

    Publishers Mark and Gary Stern said they created the newspaper to provide seven-day-a-week home delivery after The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press reduced home delivery to three days a week.
     
  11. txsportsscribe

    txsportsscribe Active Member

    no, circulation issues weren't all to blame. sounds to me like bad business plan/management is to blame. i wonder if those checks ever came.
     
  12. IGotQuestions

    IGotQuestions Member

    Circulation issues are to blame if there's truth to the strong rumors of the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press colluding against the new daily and strong-arming advertisers and point-of-sale retailers of its newspapers; threats of pulling their product from their stores if they sold the new daily in their stores as well. Why there hasn't been an expanded explanation of 'circulation issues', at least publicly by the fellas operating this venture, well, this could be the reason.
     
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