How can the News/Freep Make Detroit Better?

[Hypestyles]

So, the two major newspapers in Detroit, the Detroit News and the Free Press, have announced a competition on how to improve their services, and how they can help make Metro Detroit/Michigan a better place.. they describe it as an 'open-ended' request for ideas, so the content can range from how to improve editorial content, improve on delivery options [[hardcopy, internet, multi-media, etc.), or supporting a local charity or broader initiative.

This is my pitch-- on youth and education in the city--

http://ideas.michigan.com/forum/index.php?topic=87.0

[Detroitnerd]

How about by publishing newspapers with stories for people who like to read? Actual investigative journalism?

There's something disingenuous about stripping your papers of staff, resources, delivery -- and then turning around and asking, "How may we HELP you?"

[Gannon]

I think hiring real investigative journalists and managers again would certainly help.


Copy editors, too.

[canuck]

They should fund contests inviting students in various disciplines to come up with ideas for a new Detroit. The invitation serves as a source of hope and helps young people visualise their dreams and aspirations. Disciplines would be wide ranging; urban planning, arts and entertainment, finance and commerce, agronomy, and all areas of engineering, etc...

If you are invited to think about how your city can grow, chances are you will stick around to make and watch things happen. I think newspapers are a great place to start.

[Lowell]

I think they are doing a good job even with the declining resources they have. There is still a good core of professional journalists. They are hampered by fluctuating ownership and still haven't come to grips with understanding and making money in digital media. Freep.com ranks at 3773 worldwide and 965 USA, Detnews.com at 4586 adn 942. That is good traffic and hopefully will sustain them.

As for what they can do help Detroit - just do what they are supposed to do. Report the news in depth and dig into the unseen.

Oh, and an apology for past managements' ripping this town apart with their lockout / strike where they brought 1200 mercenary guards into our community wouldn't hurt.

[jackie5275]

Get rid of Nolan Finley!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[belleislerunner]

I agree with the comments above relative to more investigative journalism being necessary. I think the question management should be focused on is - why should I, the end user - buy the Detroit News/Free Press? What do they provide that I can't get somewhere else? Pretend we had a dry erase board. List all the reasons why I should purchase the News/Free Press over something else out there. If that answer isn't clear - there isn't a good reason for a user to purchase/subscribe.

The shift over the past decade with these two papers has been to more "entertainment" news and AP wires etc coming out of NYC/LA/Washington. While national news is important - I wouldn't subscribe to a Detroit newspaper to read about a Charlie Sheen fiasco, the Kardashian twins, what Rachel Maddow thinks or any other pop culture. If I subscribe to a Detroit paper - I want to be challenged to think. Think of the in depth reporting in the NY Times, Wash Post, WSJ - that take a specific rule/issue/trend and how it applies to a focal point.

Tell me stories about immigrants coming to Detroit and trying to assimilate, or how local towns are determining which services to cut in the economic downturn or the latest development news coming out of local companies or projects downtown. Think in depth pieces examining the billionaires in the local area, the leaders of the Big three and tier 1 suppliers, the successes of nonprofits in Southwest Detroit etc. When I open the current paper and see the same stories on WDIV, Freep, CNN, Detnews, Channel 7 - it gives me no incentive to buy the paper - I can get that same information elsewhere. I think the tone at the top lacks a clear vision as to what their newspapers report and the readers are left struggling. Do newspapers refer to prisons as "Camp Cupcake" or should that be left to blogs and internet tabloids.

The other pervasive issue with both papers is the negative tone about the region. Misery loves company and when the papers sensationalize every negative story/trend coming out of Detroit - it has a carryover effect for the readers. You can't change the way you act until you change the way you think. Posting every negative survey about Detroit, or placement in a Men's Health study etc - isn't news as much as it is free advertising for the publication "researching" - yet the two papers loves to point out every story/article in a condescending tone. There are tons of issues, high unemployment - but we can read those pieces of "news" without screaming titles - "highest in foreclosures. again", "nation’s highest unemployment rate is here" - it's almost like we relish our woes instead of fixing them.

There are definitely quality journalists at both papers - but my main suggestions would be to shift less from traditional wire source and entertainment fluff - and focus on quality reporting [[even if it's only once a week to start) - a nice in depth piece akin to the NY magazine. People are so used to mindless banter on twitter, facebook updates etc - that many actually enjoy a solid piece of journalism that makes them think.

[Jimaz]

... There's something disingenuous about stripping your papers of staff, resources, delivery -- and then turning around and asking, "How may we HELP you?"

HAHAHA That nails it.

Another yes for investigative journalism here.

[Detroitnerd]

I remember, like, eight years ago, they brought in consultants at one of the dailies to seriously say that newspapers were going to write stories about LIFE EVENTS. Like buying your first car. Or starting to go bald. And that was what people wanted to read about. Like we don't need reporters chasing people around the block; all we need to do is turn our newspaper into some kind of cut-rate Sun Magazine [[with AP and wire reporting carrying the rest) and people will just love it.

Years later, hundreds of buyouts later, stripped of institutional knowledge, with compromised delivery systems [[nice gamble that was), and plummeting readership, let me just say one thing ...

... no union agitators, no labor organizers, could have damaged these papers more than the short-sighted management has in the last 15 years. Arguably, they'd be healthier if the management had walked away and let the workers run them.

[Gannon]

I couldn't agree more forcefully with that last line, D'nerd!

[BShea]

I remember, like, eight years ago, they brought in consultants at one of the dailies to seriously say that newspapers were going to write stories about LIFE EVENTS. Like buying your first car. Or starting to go bald. And that was what people wanted to read about. Like we don't need reporters chasing people around the block; all we need to do is turn our newspaper into some kind of cut-rate Sun Magazine [[with AP and wire reporting carrying the rest) and people will just love it.

Years later, hundreds of buyouts later, stripped of institutional knowledge, with compromised delivery systems [[nice gamble that was), and plummeting readership, let me just say one thing ...

... no union agitators, no labor organizers, could have damaged these papers more than the short-sighted management has in the last 15 years. Arguably, they'd be healthier if the management had walked away and let the workers run them.

If I remember correctly, that was Gannett's "Real Life, Real News" initiative.

Keep in mind that advertising dictates the number of news pages, and that's it's not easy to fill those with hard-hitting investigative content every day. Honestly, with the current staffing levels, you're going to need wire copy to fill pages.

Reporters are asked to do long-term stories, which require legwork and being away from their desks. They also are asked to filed daily print stories, daily web stories, blogs, and myriad other tasks. They also have to spend time managing beats -- calls, meetings, lunches, etc. -- just to keep abreast of things, build relationships, etc. That's stuff that doesn't often produce immediate copy, but eats up a reporter's time. Some also blog.

Both newspapers do a lot of good work, but a lot of it gets lost amid the screaming disaster news, celeb news, etc. The business of news has changed -- it's 24/7 and delivered in multiple platforms around the clocks. Readers get an overload of information, and reporters get overloaded, too.

You also have whatever the latest initiative coming down from corporate headquarters that will consume time/effort for the newsroom.

[Ray1936]

I think the best features Detroit papers ever had were "Action Line" and "Contact 10". One was a Freep feature, the other on the News [[don't recall which was which). They took questions about anything and came up with an answer, whether it was a road construction problem or a question about the history of the railroad tunnel. Made for interesting reading, and it gave Detroiters a source for an answer to a puzzle in those pre-internet days.

[Jimaz]

Contact 10 was Detroit News. I know because I used it as advertisements for new subscriptions on my Detroit News paper route.

To my memory it was primarily a consumer advocate feature.

Yeah, it was curiously interesting for its small footprint, on the front page no less.

[Jimaz]

... To my memory it was primarily a consumer advocate feature....

No, on second thought it was more like what Ray said. Readers would compete to stump the 'News researchers but the researchers had the choice to select and showcase their best work. The results were very interesting and useful.

I wonder if it's archived somewhere?

[DetroitDad]

How can the News/Freep Make Detroit Better?

They're still around, eh?

[[Just kidding)

I'm thinking they should put even more emphasis on local news, or more so, how world news is affecting us locally. Beyond that, hard hitting stories or good op-eds are something you read on the way to work. If the story is good, you tell your co-workers who then tell their families and neighbors, or bring up the stories at dinner parties. Eventually, you have people who will remember the best of those stories once they become relevant again, and they feel compelled to subscribe to their current membership archives.

Does that sound about right?

Sooo..... what is missing in that business cycle?

PS: I know there are other popular ways, reasons, and places people read the paper. I chose to focus on one, in this post.

[dookie joe]

It's not the newspapers' job to "make Detroit better." Newspapers merely chronicle what happens, good or bad. If the city continues to plunge into the abyss, I would hope the News and Freep would focus their efforts on informing readers about what's going on, while also making a permanent record of events, rather than trying to "make it better."

If a newspaper story happens to benefit citizens [[Kwamegate, RiddleGate, etc.), that's a bonus. But the papers shouldn't aim to "make things better." That's a job for moms, dads, pastors, public officials, lovers and basset hounds ... not reporters and editors.

[begingri]

Bring back 7-day home delivery. The Macomb Daily [[and Oakland Press) blow. I'm sick of reading about girls high school basketball on the front page of the Sports section and AP articles re-printed in the main section. I don't care how "down-sized" the paper is on Mon./Tues./Wed./Sat. Just offer standard home delivery again.

[Lt. Dan Bassett]

actually, there is something called "premium" home delivery. It costs a bit more but you get your paper every day.

http://mediamatters.org/blog/201006010005

[jackie5275]

After reading other posts, I have to comment again. I think the folks saying there needs to be a more local focus are correct, & I agree with them. When I look at the county sections on the Freep.com, I sometimes see the same stories sitting there for 2-3 days with nothing new, no updates. This blatantly shows nothing is being reported regularly on the local level. I also think they need to stop pushing each political party's agenda. It has turned into, particularly in this century, that the News pushes the right wing, conservative, Republican agenda, and the Free Press pushes the left wing, liberal, Democratic agenda. I think this plays heavily in their reporting because they give articles their respective agenda's slants. Their editorials, while despite at times covering local items, still have the undertones of the national agendas. I know full well there is a schism going on in our nation right now between the left & the right politically. I think that doesn't have to have an underlying tone or feeling in the local articles written by both papers.

[night-timer]

What heroes. It's a self-serving request. To make themselves better, give the newspapers away for free. It's a dying industry, and many publications [[magazines moreso) only exist to sell advertising space. This is why it costs $8000 to take out a full page ad in a major magazine, while the freelancer who sells a feature to the same magazine will get paid $100 per-page-in-print.

I know one editor who could somehow effortlessly wittle a full-length feature into a 400 word 'vignette' piece, otherwise known as a 'filler'.

Even television news is dying, due to the advent of HD video reaily available to all and sundry - and there are so many more sources of info on news, sport, politics, world affairs, fashion, celebs, etc, than merely newspapers these days.

The hard-copy newspaper that you purchase only contains the same info you could get for free by visiting the newspaper's website and browsing with your Ipad, I-phone or notebook PC.

[Detroit500]

They could quit running pictures that are as big as the entire paper [[Freep), they would quit starting an article on page one and restarting it on page 6 [[Freep), they could bring back a magazine, they could provide insightful opinion or talk about something interesting, they could bring back a fulltime movie critic [[Freep), they could add a New York bureau for financial news, they could make the paper thicker, they could create more jobs, there's lots of things they could do but the reality is they don't have the financial resources to do it...

And, who wants to sell ads to Detroiters --- statistically not very rich anymore, statistically not that educated, open the New York Times in NYC and you see Gucci, Tiffany adverts all over the place, the best Freep can do is maybe a tiny 8th page ad for Saks or those nearly full page ads for Macys, or [[more realistically) those full page ads for Hearing Aids. What does that tell you about who the ideal person reading the newspaper is.

All things considered, I think the News is doing much better at managing their business than Free Press.

Oh, and get rid of Gannett. That's really the best thing they could do... Then again, why Gannett hasn't closed them is nothing short of a miracle either.

[old guy]

I think the days of investigative journalism might be gone for good. It's unfortunate. Aside from the cost of a journalist that's out on a beat, there's the huge cost of being investigative due to the litigious nature of our society. Law suits are plentiful and very expensive. Since print media doesn't bring in the money it used to, they tend to shy away from anything that might cost them a large amount of cash.
What's hard to determine is what came first, the chicken or the egg. Have their incomes dropped because they stopped publishing investigative journalism, or did they stop publishing investigative reporting because they don't have the income.
TV news has done the same thing. Personally, I think that if newspapers would return to good journalism their readership would increase. All media went down the same road at the same time and I think if one source would take a chance and head off in a better direction, they might become profitable again.

old guy 742

[laphoque]

There have been some good articles.
The pollution in Del Ray.
LeDuff's reporting on DFD that's moved to Fox 2.
The land speculators.

There have been some memorably bad articles.
Nearly every Mitch Albom column.
Rochelle Riley pretending to be a down and out Detroit mother [[in Ann Arbor).
The exclusive with Matty Moroun which read like he bought some PR space.
Does anybody actually read the horrible National/World section?

I want to see extensive election coverage:
Nobody covers the Detroit School Board until we elect strangers who become an embarrassment.
They soft-balled Snyder all the way into office.
I want concise reasoning behind their editorial picks akin to NYTime's. They do that to a certain extent with the Detroit mayor and Michigan governor but what about the charter commission? What about city council, etc?

They need to never jump on the moral panic bandwagon about synthetic cannabis or other stupid moral panic non-trends. I'd like to see them push against that. I'd like to see them leading the way to a rational dialogue.

I'd like to see coverage of the criminal underworld that must exist. It's like Baltimore in the Wire here. There are probably interesting stories behind the occasional massive drug busts I read about but the only info they ever seem to have is a citation of the kilos of whatever they found, the supposed residency and names of the people arrested and a warning from the arresting police force about how they're getting tough on crime, although they'll never stop the drug trade in a wet metro like Detroit.

I continue subscribing because of the important investigative work they sometimes accomplish. I cringe though most everything else.

[Detroit500]

They can not run the incredibly anti-islamic "advertisement" in today's Life section in the Freep. I'm all for selling ads, but it bordered on hate speech. I'm surprised they were willing to run it.

[Carey]

Just in time for this thread...a report from Jalopnik on the Detroit News auto critic quitting over the editing of his column that was critical of the Chrysler 200. With the actual edited story!

http://jalopnik.com/#!5782691/how-th...-sold-its-soul