New Detroit daily?

[English]

No. They are not Detroit. East Side "wasteland" is the REAL Detroit. And Downtown And West Side and SW Side. NOT ferndale.

I'm sick of hearing about suburban places robing the Detroit name. Just like they robbed all the people and stores and investment. But even tho they have all that, they are still not Detroit.

"Read Detroit" is a sham. Who do they really think they are calling themselves not only Detroit, but REAL Detroit?!?! I have all a question... how many people of color are pictured or writen about in RD? Not many. Why dont they rename themselves Real White Suburban Detroit? Guess it doesnt ring, eh? Well maybe they should actually locate in Detroit and start covering the real Detroit they CHOOSE to ignore.

You get a standing ovation for this post. It's almost like when people here at Michigan or in the tricounty area make comments that imply that "no one" lives in Detroit.

Forget anyone who says my family, my friends, and I are less real than folks north of 8 mile or west of Telegraph... actually, make that west of Merriman and north of 14/15 mile. The cultural and social boundaries of the metro have changed... note that the person you're responding to didn't compare middle class families in Macomb County to middle class families in SOUTHFIELD or REDFORD. Things that make you go hmmm...

[East Detroit]

So says someone who lives in the suburb of Ann Arbor.

Meanwhile, Metro Detroit can do without the divisive "us vs them" mentality.

Who is more real? Neither.

[English]

So says someone who lives in the suburb of Ann Arbor.

So says someone who goes to graduate school on Michigan's campus... wow, you got me!

Not.

No one except a few grouches on DetroitYES think that someone seeking higher education and living on a university campus is a permanent resident of the place they're going to school. Real Detroiters don't have this problem. Neither do my graduate school friends, who think Michigan is a backwater and plan to use this state [[and your tax dollars) for its fancy terminal degrees, and then hightail it "back to civilization"... a common phrase up here.

Meanwhile, Metro Detroit can do without the divisive "us vs them" mentality.

A divisive us vs. them mentality exists when I see recurring threads on DetroitYES like "Why won't women come into the city of Detroit?" when hundreds of THOUSANDS of women live in Detroit, or hear people say things like "well, the neighborhoods where people live are __insert fashionable hood here___." Or, heard ALL over this region, "No one actually LIVES in Detroit."

The caricaturization of the citizens of Detroit is a very, very common meme in SE Michigan, which is what set the previous poster off.... to which I say, "amen". People who have darkness in their souls ought to be exposed to the light. If you do not consider your fellow men, women, and children PEOPLE... well... of course you want to be divided from them.

I'll never forget the Free Press editorial that I read as a 12 year old growing up in DETROIT in 1989, without much personal awareness of the sickness of our region. It was a rant from a suburban woman in Roseville who said that Detroit needed to be quarantined to protect decent people from the rotting cancer within.

In retrospect, she sounded like a vocal minority of DetroitYES posters.

Who is more real? Neither.

In this context, you couldn't be more wrong. Real Detroiters actually live in the city of Detroit... because there are still PEOPLE in the city.

[RealityCheck]

Tidbits from pre-launch comments by publishers Gary + Mark Stern this AM, which I observed as a guest:

• First issue: Mon, 11/23 @ 3,500 stores . . . street sales only during 1st week. 16 pages. Will be sampled "to every home" in metro area.
  
  
• Delivery: Starts 11/30, 7 days/wk ... still 16 pp "until ad sales grow."
  
  
• Editorial staff: Just over half-dozen News/Freep alums, including Rob Parker, Keith Gave, John Smyntek, Christy Arboscello, Kristin Bull . . . other pros such as Kim Crawford [[Flint Journal), Doug Henze [[Oak Press), Christy Strawser [[Daily Trib/Mac Daily). James Briggs [[Ann Arbor News). George Cantor will contribute sports cols. Rest are young career-starters.
  
  
• Editorial page: No staff editorials, just guest columns + letters [["a multiplicity of voices").
  
  
• Ad reps: Straight commission, no base, no payment 'til invoices paid.
  
  
• Paywall: Full online content for subscibers only; unpaid access only to daily news digest.
  
  
• Sunday edition: Includes TV mag and Parade -- "with Mitch Albom's column every week!"

Expect more from Bill Shea soon at crain.com, as he vowed.

[Also, this via Nathan Hurst at DetNews: Staffers won't receive their first paycheck until after Nov. 16, when the company's first official operating week begins.]

[Evelyn]

Today is the first day the paper hits the news stands- has anyone picked up a copy?

[bartock]

So says someone who goes to graduate school on Michigan's campus... wow, you got me!

Not.

No one except a few grouches on DetroitYES think that someone seeking higher education and living on a university campus is a permanent resident of the place they're going to school. Real Detroiters don't have this problem. Neither do my graduate school friends, who think Michigan is a backwater and plan to use this state [[and your tax dollars) for its fancy terminal degrees, and then hightail it "back to civilization"... a common phrase up here.



A divisive us vs. them mentality exists when I see recurring threads on DetroitYES like "Why won't women come into the city of Detroit?" when hundreds of THOUSANDS of women live in Detroit, or hear people say things like "well, the neighborhoods where people live are __insert fashionable hood here___." Or, heard ALL over this region, "No one actually LIVES in Detroit."

The caricaturization of the citizens of Detroit is a very, very common meme in SE Michigan, which is what set the previous poster off.... to which I say, "amen". People who have darkness in their souls ought to be exposed to the light. If you do not consider your fellow men, women, and children PEOPLE... well... of course you want to be divided from them.

I'll never forget the Free Press editorial that I read as a 12 year old growing up in DETROIT in 1989, without much personal awareness of the sickness of our region. It was a rant from a suburban woman in Roseville who said that Detroit needed to be quarantined to protect decent people from the rotting cancer within.

In retrospect, she sounded like a vocal minority of DetroitYES posters.



In this context, you couldn't be more wrong. Real Detroiters actually live in the city of Detroit... because there are still PEOPLE in the city.

Entire family prior to my generation were born and raised in Detroit AND I was born in Detroit...so am I a Detroiter? Am I from Detroit? Neither? Let's explore:

I grew up in Sterling Heights and then Rochester...definitely NOT Detroit, right?

Moved to Detroit to go to school...first year at U of D dorms [[not Detroit?), then spent 3 years living in the surrounding neighborhood, but not the University District [[not really Detroit, right?), but by Dexter/Puritan [[a little more like Detroit, but I was a student, so not really Detroit).

Then I moved to Royal Oak [[NOT Detroit, right?), Pleasant Ridge [[S. of 696, getting warmer, but NOT Detroit), Hamtramck [[depends on what part, but I was renting and also starting grad school, so not Detroit), Cass Corridor [[but near Wayne State and I was a student AND I'm white, so not really Detroit), then back to Royal Oak [[already established, not Detroit).

Soo....now in Harper Woods, which is more than 50% minority by some accounts AND it is an "inner ring" suburb. So I'm now a Detroiter? I also pay Detroit City taxes, so maybe I'm more of a Detroiter? Or am I from Detroit? Wait, my school system is Grosse Pointe, so now I am definitely NOT Detroit. But I spend almost all of my waking hours IN Detroit, so am I Detroit? Whew, that's a tough one.

Am I a Detroiter? Am I from Detroit? Am I an ex-Detroiter? Am I Metro Detroit? Am I....blah blah blah.

Boy trying to figure all of this out sure seems a waste of time.

I'll give that paper a shot, but Rob Parker [[NOT a Detroiter) is not my favorite sports writer [[I may or may not be from Detroit, but I like the sports teams that are named after the City of Detroit, if that exists).

[DC48080]

HORRIBLE HORRIBLE PAPER!

I had to go to three stores this morning before I found one that sold the new paper. When I got to work and opened the paper I found that it contained absolutely no news whatsoever. It was page after page of snippets about the various staff and reporters. No local news, no national news, no sports scores or stats. The comic strips were all regurgitated ones from February of this year.

I realize that this was their first issue but if they aren't going to have any news stories they should not be charging 50 cents for this rag. I will give them one more chance, I'll buy a copy in another day or two. But if I don't see any actual news, I'm done with the Detroit Daily Press.

As much as I hate to say it, even the Macomb Daily [[which absolutely sucks) is better than The Daily Press. I am now beginning to miss the News and Free Press.

[ziggyselbin]

No one except a few grouches on DetroitYES think that someone seeking higher education and living on a university campus is a permanent resident of the place they're going to school. Real Detroiters don't have this problem. Neither do my graduate school friends, who think Michigan is a backwater and plan to use this state [[and your tax dollars) for its fancy terminal degrees, and then hightail it "back to civilization"... a common phrase up here


Good we don't want those assholes here anyway

[texorama]

Yeah, I bought one. It's thin. You'd think they would've wanted to start off with a bang to attract readers and advertisers. The look and photos were undistinguished--wouldn't have cost them too much to hire hip, hungry young designers and photogs. Only plus: avowedly moderate editorial stance that aims to dial down left-right rhetoric and present a variety of views. Hope they're ramping up.

[DC48080]

Yeah, I bought one. It's thin. You'd think they would've wanted to start off with a bang to attract readers and advertisers. The look and photos were undistinguished--wouldn't have cost them too much to hire hip, hungry young designers and photogs. Only plus: avowedly moderate editorial stance that aims to dial down left-right rhetoric and present a variety of views. Hope they're ramping up.

I didn't even see any editorials in there at all. Just a bunch of short articles about the various staffers. I'm hoping for better content tomorrow or I am done with this "newspaper".

Even the Metro Times has more news content than what I saw in the Daily Press today. And I can't stand the Metro Times. I wouldn't line a birdcage with it.

[smogboy]

Any paper that hires Rob Parker to be in it as a serious journalist scares me. I'm sorry but he's got a long winded history of just reporting rumors upon rumors upon rumors. When it comes to sports journalism- don't become the gossip monger and don't just become the voice for the poor disenfranchised African American athlete either. Those bits get tired and stale.

I'll see if I can scare up a copy of it just to see it but admittedly just looking at the masthead and front page, it's about as drab as can be. I'm not saying it needs to be the Weekly World News splashy or US magazine tabloid trashy in order to get attention, but like some others have said here- for a debut issue, you'd think they'd want something a little punchier to shop around to other advertisers and get prospective readers' attention?

[DC48080]

Well, I tried to find a copy of the Detroit Daily Press this morning. I went to the store where I purchased yesterday's copy, at 9:00 this morning, and all they had were leftover copies of yesterday's paper. I went to another store and it was the same thing.

What a poor excuse for a newspaper. I wanted to write to them yesterday but there was no masthead [[which all other newspapers have) from which I could get a phone number or address let alone an email address.

This piss poor excuse for a newspaper will not last long if they don't make drastic changes right away. As I mentioned in an earlier post there was not a single article of local or national news, sports scores, weather forecast, lottery numbers, anything worthwhile at all in yesterday's paper. It was truly a waste of 50 cents. I wanted to give them one more chance today but after two stops at 9:00 this morning I could not find a copy.

[ziggyselbin]

At Which papers did all you experts work? The 1st day of publication ,I admire you all for being so open minded and willing to give this thing a chance.

[lafayette]

Which stores can we pick this up at? Is there a web site with a listing of locations or a web site of the paper in general?

[BShea]

@DC48080: It sounds like you picked up their test edition, if its the issue with all the staff bios. The new one has Lions stuff on the front page.

It sounds like CVS and 7-Eleven are the main places to get it, but those stores are having internal bar code difficulties with it.

I reviewed the first edition here: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/shea

It's certainly not on par with the Free/News or Metro Times/Real Detroit, but I won't write an obit after one issue. They started this thing fast, maybe too fast, but I think it'll be more fair to pass judgment a bit more down the road. They've got a chance because of the weird situation with the metro papers in town, but they have to be scrappy, credible and nail some scoops to make a name.

[Vic_doucette]

How can journalistic competition be a bad thing?

[DetroitPlanner]

I bought a copy at the newstand in the lobby of my building today. Read a George Cantor column for the first time in years. I hope they can pull it off, though it is a huge risk. Not much to the paper currently, but it takes a while to get established, and get some advertising revenue. I do like the fact that it costs half as much as the other papers, but you don't get much at either the $1 or fifty-cent cost.

[douglasm]

No on line edition? I probably can't get home delivery out here in the sticks......

At 16 pages, what does it compare to, a strike paper?

[DC48080]

@DC48080: It sounds like you picked up their test edition, if its the issue with all the staff bios. The new one has Lions stuff on the front page.

It sounds like CVS and 7-Eleven are the main places to get it, but those stores are having internal bar code difficulties with it.

I reviewed the first edition here: http://www.crainsdetroit.com/shea

It's certainly not on par with the Free/News or Metro Times/Real Detroit, but I won't write an obit after one issue. They started this thing fast, maybe too fast, but I think it'll be more fair to pass judgment a bit more down the road. They've got a chance because of the weird situation with the metro papers in town, but they have to be scrappy, credible and nail some scoops to make a name.

Thanks Bshea, I probably did indeed picked up a test edition. I'm curious as to why they would sell a test edition with absolutely no news articles whatsoever at full price and not at the very least put something promenantly on the front page to identify it as such.

In any event, I was unable to find anything but the same garbage "test edition" that I purchased yesterday at either of two stores I visited this morning. I will try again tomorrow but I'm not sure if I will attempt to buy the paper beyond that if I cannot easily find a copy.

[BShea]

I know they were distributing those editions recently, but I didn't think they were sale. Maybe some places are selling them -- I have no idea.

[Jimaz]

No on line edition? I probably can't get home delivery out here in the sticks......

Here's a website but I don't think it's what you want: http://www.detdailypress.com/. There's not much of anything there.

I vaguely recall reading somewhere that they didn't plan for an on line edition at least at first because they were mainly targeting the vacuum left in the hardcopy market.

[polaar]

Leo's at Telegraph & Maple had a stack of copies in their in-house newspaper bin today [[Nov 24).

[texorama]

CVS stores have had them consistently.

[DC48080]

This morning I stopped at one gas station, one 7-11 store, and two CVS stores. The only thing I could find was a copy on Monday's Det Daily Press at the gas station. I asked the clerk at one of the CVSs and she said she had never heard of the Daily Press.

This is getting discouraging. I want to give this paper a chance but if I cannot easliy buy a copy what am I supposed to do? It is not as though I live out in the sticks or something. Nobody should have to visit 4 stores and not be able to find a copy.

[sirrealone]

People, this paper has been in operation for less than a week. Give them an opportunity to figure things out before just writing them off and badmouthing them. This is a cool thing that they're doing and let's face it, it's a longshot. They've got a lot of things working against them trying to make this a success, but I don't think that naysayers writing them off after less than a week should be on the list. Give them a break.