Detroit News offers buyouts to all editorial employees

[EGrant]

Pretty bad news for The News. Read more via Crain's.

In a memo obtained by Crain's sent Tuesday on behalf of Editor and Publisher Jonathan Wolman, buyouts are offered to everyone in the newsroom regardless of age and duties. It's unknown how many need to volunteer to take a buyout to meet the budget goal. Without enough volunteers, the newspaper likely would have to begin layoffs.

[dtowncitylover]

Is this the writing on the wall for Detroit to become a one print paper town?

[Bobl]

I suspect that Detroit will be a no major print news paper town, soon.

[Zads07]

This is what happens when you don't invest in journalism.

INVEST!

[belleislerunner]

This is what happens when "journalists" don't reflect the views of the readership.

[Zads07]

This is what happens when "journalists" don't reflect the views of the readership.

Journalists shouldn't reflect views of readership. It's the job of journalists to provide unbiased news to the masses.

[belleislerunner]

Good and it's the job of readers not to pay for it if they don't like it. It seems readers don't like the value they get out of the News.

I'm all for volunteer journalists, they can spin however they like. But don't come crying because the people who pay for your paper no longer feel it's worth reading. That's an easy fix. Write better.

[mwilbert]

Both papers could be better, but the reason why the News [[and Free Press, and pretty much every other local newspaper) is struggling is mostly because the internet has slashed its revenue base of local and classified ads, and there isn't anything they can do on the content side to fix that.

[EGrant]

I'm all for volunteer journalists, they can spin however they like. But don't come crying because the people who pay for your paper no longer feel it's worth reading. That's an easy fix. Write better.

It's not that easy. People just don't consume news the same way, with the internet and social media becoming the dominant forms of news. The journalism industry just couldn't find a business model to take advantage of this shift, no matter how good the writing is.

[douglasm]

Both papers could be better, but the reason why the News [[and Free Press, and pretty much every other local newspaper) is struggling is mostly because the internet has slashed its revenue base of local and classified ads, and there isn't anything they can do on the content side to fix that.

You are correct. Look what happened to to the Booth newspapers for confirmation. The fall of those papers left a large information gap that a website really can't fill.

I wonder if, in a way, we're going to end up with a sort of "super regional" newspaper [[think a Michigan based USA Today style paper) covering state and national issues, and a whole string of weeklys doing the local stories.

[Bobl]

The days of nearly all print journalism are numbered. I still like reading the Sunday paper and getting ink on my hands, though. Any oldtimers remember the newspaper strike of the 1960s, when small flyers [[one called The Daily Press) were distributed with a limited amount of local news? Some of the language was not polite, with criminals referred to as "guttersnipes" or worse.

[Oddz313]

Kwame wishes that this would have happened a long...long..time ago

[313WX]

You are correct. Look what happened to to the Booth newspapers for confirmation. The fall of those papers left a large information gap that a website really can't fill.

I wonder if, in a way, we're going to end up with a sort of "super regional" newspaper [[think a Michigan based USA Today style paper) covering state and national issues, and a whole string of weeklys doing the local stories.

MLive already sort of / kind of fits that mold.

[Zads07]

Good and it's the job of readers not to pay for it if they don't like it. It seems readers don't like the value they get out of the News.

I'm all for volunteer journalists, they can spin however they like. But don't come crying because the people who pay for your paper no longer feel it's worth reading. That's an easy fix. Write better.

There's no such thing as volunteer journalists. Please do some research before talking about a topic you clearly don't know much about.

[Hermod]

There's no such thing as volunteer journalists. Please do some research before talking about a topic you clearly don't know much about.

The whole thing went downhill when they replaced "reporters" who came up through the ranks with college-produced "journalists".

[Zads07]

The whole thing went downhill when they replaced "reporters" who came up through the ranks with college-produced "journalists".

Newspapers went cheaper by going with less experienced journalists out of college, but don't forget about the internet. Us newspaper folk have not yet figured out how to harness that into more money to keep our dying medium alive.

[douglasm]

Keeping in mind that I live 2200 miles from Detroit, how are the regional newspapers like the Pontiac Press and the Royal Oak Daily Tribune doing? And is there a Macomb County daily?

[Jimaz]

... And is there a Macomb County daily?

MacombDaily.com such as it is.

[EGrant]

MacombDaily.com such as it is.

My parents still get the print edition. It's really, really small and full of auto dealer ads.

[Danny]

Well since most millennials do not read newspapers anymore. And the paperboys will not ride their bikes with sacs full of newspaper in your hood. It's time to newspaper dailies to close up shop and letT.V. cable and internet take over.

[daddeeo]

Cable TV is full of sound bites and political hacks pushing their brand of truth.
Newspapers can cover a story with more then a paragraph or two of information.
They often do stories that becomes headline news later.

Well since most millennials do not read newspapers anymore. And the paperboys will not ride their bikes with sacs full of newspaper in your hood. It's time to newspaper dailies to close up shop and letT.V. cable and internet take over.

[Jimaz]

Wizard of Id

[Enduro]

I used to subscribe to the Freep basically just for the weekend paper and to "do my part" but I was travelling a ton for work at the time and the hold notifications were just not being honored. When I was in the city I had a roommate it was no big deal but after I got my house in Oak Park I just couldn't have papers piling up in front of the house.

[Bigdd]

Both papers could be better, but the reason why the News [[and Free Press, and pretty much every other local newspaper) is struggling is mostly because the internet has slashed its revenue base of local and classified ads, and there isn't anything they can do on the content side to fix that.

I agree.

That coupled with a huge price increase for classified listings some 5-6 years ago spelled the death of the section. From 20 pages to 1.

Back in about 2006 they installed all new presses,... designed [[they said) to make the print clearer, etc. But they also made the paper slightly smaller,.. and added more columns. So you ended up with 30% less letters per line on a classified ad. You now needed 5 lines to say the same thing as you used to be able to do in 3.

My business had run a 3-line listing for roughly 80 years. But the effectiveness has degraded slightly,.. and then with that 30% increase in cost,.. it suddenly wasn't worth it anymore.

We cancelled the ad,.. as did 95% of everyone else. I told them that was what was going to happen,.. and they needed to keep the costs DOWN,. and not up. When you're in a dying market,.. a major price hike is not going to work. They either didn't believe me or didn't care.

[night-timer]

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