Detroit News offers buyouts to all editorial employees

[Zads07]

Why buy a newspaper when you can read the online version for free?

This is the biggest issue in journalism. We don't know yet how to harness the advertising online.

[ct_alum]

Here's hoping that Nolan Finley is the first to go.

[Hermod]

This is the biggest issue in journalism. We don't know yet how to harness the advertising online.

Facebook and Google seem to have done it and done well at it.

[bust]

I suggest you've got to go all in on digital. And for that you've got to either dive into clickbait quicksand or produce much better original content. Clickbait is of course nothing more than an ad revenue play. But it's becoming ever more ubiquitous, so I strongly discourage it. You've got to create the most ridiculous fables to compete. And it does no service to your readers. Rather, I suggest you create something people will seek out, share, and pay for.

The New York Times, the Economist, and the Washington Post are having some success at that [[some of it qualified -- see below).

The Detroit papers have already trimmed themselves so close to the bone they're unprepared for this approach. And they lack the digital leadership. They'd need to invest in more or better journalists and technologists rather than reduce staff. Simply trimming further may appease a few and prolong survival, but it leads to suicide in the end.

I'd love to know the numbers: What happened to circulation when paper format was cut from 7 days a week to 3? How has readership tracked with the number of original stories produced? The number of words written? I'm all but sure it's analogous to bus frequency: service cutbacks lead to a decline in ridership, to more cutbacks, until the quality of service is so low the savings are more than offset by reduced revenue. Bad plan.

The Detroit News and Free Press have become skeletal ghosts of their former selves. So little content. So little of it original. Especially so little that isn't sports or infotainment or easily digestible scandal. Not much you can't find somewhere else, often better. I can understand why few are willing to pay for that. There is convenience having it delivered to your doorstep, but now that it's only three days a week even subscribers are forced to turn elsewhere.

It's a challenge for an industry so steeped in tradition to adapt to our new and rapidly changing methods of communication. But recent events prove how urgent it is that it does. The last thing we need is more ignorance and unchecked deception. Easy? Of course not. But please do. And readers, please support them.

Why the NYT Is Looking to Cut Costs, Even Though It Turned a Profit
http://fortune.com/2016/02/05/nyt-profit/

A Bit of Good News About Journalism
http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-c...ews-journalism

Good News at the Washington Post
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...ald-trump.html

The Economist Group Financial Results
http://www.economistgroup.com/result..._a_glance.html