Detroit News may be shutting down
Per some industry insiders, the Detroit News may not be long for this world. Apollo Global Management, a large private equity company, is purchasing a majority of the assets of Digital First Media, the current owner of the News. However, the News is not among the papers being bought. That would effectively make the News an orphan and cause it to fold.
Apparently the paper was not profitable in 2014 and Apollo does not want to add it to the deal since it's dead weight.
We live in a world where Angelique Chengelis may have to search for a new job before Drew Sharp does. That, my friend, is a scary thought.
Actually, you were correct the first time.
It's not a surprise. Detroit has not been a 2 newspaper town for decades and has been operating under a Joint Operating Agreement with the Free Press for several years in an attempt to stem the inevitable tide. With newspaper readership down in general one will have to go to keep the other profitable. I like the sports reporters for the News and will be sad if this is true.
He'll probably move over there of to one of the other local papers if this is true.
I'll believe it when I see it.
both papers have been circling the drain since the JOA. I'm surprised that one hasn't shut down already.
I know it's blasphemy, but I actually preferred the freep before stretchgate. Cancelled my subscription around that time and now I just get all my news online.
It's too bad that newspapers are dying, but their content is crap for the most part and people want their news RIGHT NOW!!!
Apparenlty, tabloid journalism is a more viablie business model than traditional journalism at this point in time. If it's true, it sucks that the wrong paper is going down.
yet print and broadcast news media continue to bleed customers. Wonder if those customers think there is a quality of content issue ...
Of the papers in Detroit, I find myself gravitating towards the sports coverage in the News more than anything, and I enjoy Angelique's work, Wojo and a couple others as well. If this actually ends up occuring, it would feel weird for a very, very long time not to have two major newspapers in the Detroit area. As I recall, there was a point in the past where the Detroit News was the largest circulation evening paper in the nation, so there's quite a history that would go with it.
Newspaper companies are a quickly dying breed. They need to determine a way for people to keep their subscriptions, but instead, get the "papers" digitally.
Like, become a news site that focuses on local events? That's basically the extent of what they can do. They can't charge a subscription for online content, nobody would pay it.
That's exactly what the News does. I have a subscription and they have a digital version of the print version of the paper, sort of like an Adobe Reader version but more sophisticated.
The News still has some actual sports writers.
soon we will be a society force fed only what the politicians and wealthy want you to hear. Sad
I think that's just a consequence of capitalism.
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The problem with more choice is, the convenient (passive) choice for most people is what they are most comfortable with.
Of course you could also debate whether former msm presented bias as well.
I am guilty of this.
I only read MGoBlog. I never read 11 Warriors.
But I get lots of OSU coverage on the radio. I've always been more interested in what other teams think of themselves, the rest of the conference and Ohio State (yes I know you all hate us) but you see faults that we are to quick to gloss over. I like to get out of the eco chamber. I do that with things like politics as well. I tend to listen to the other side instead of just having my opinions reinforced.
As I remind my kids, you don't have to agree with someone, but you should at least try to understand their point of view. You might just learn something.
"the media is only as liberal as the conservative businesses that run it"...
As opposed to what? Before the internet people got their news from a few evening news programs, a magazine or 2, and their local newspaper. If you think they were getting a more balanced diet of news before the internet...you're...wrong.
Oh god, here we go.
Your take is exactly wrong. It is easier than ever to report politcal corruption, or really anything for that matter. Anybody with an internet connection can publish a blog or website. The News shutting down has absolutely nothing to do with what you are talking about.
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I know there's a subset of people who still like a paper, but most people read their news online and get their sports information from sports websites and blogs. I can see stuff like the NYT or USA Today surviving, but anything less than national papers is a dying breed
I'd be terribly disappointed to see that. The News is by far the superior publication, for many reasons.
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I'm on board with this. We were never a Detroit News family--the other paper was (and is) far superior.
But it's unpopular in these parts to even hint that you want to say anything positive about the Free Press, so I'll stop there. I just don't want to see a Detroit daily fold.
always had better and more in-depth news and editorial coverage. The News had (and has) a better sports page.
Traditionally, the evening paper is what you read to relax when you got home. The morning paper was for actual news.
Back in the old days DN had a larger staff for more in-depth stories. A few times per year the Sunday edition would go all out on a subject that kicked off a weeklong series. There was detail you couldn't get anywhere else. Freep could never hang with that.
I did not know that. In my lifetime at least, the freep always was the bigger paper, with way higher circulation.
That makes sense though. The morning paper for "breaking news" with shallow coverage, and the evening paper for more depth on the story.
Its less about morning/afternoon and more about budgets. The News had deeper pockets. Always did. And a few years before the JOA the ENA started a morning edition to compete directly with Freep. It cost a ton but was steadily eating the Freep away.
Eh, it was basically a Coke/Pepsi thing. People swore by their paper, but in most respects they weren't too different. One paper had a conservative editorial page and one a liberal page, but otherwise their coverage was pretty similar.
When it came to sports, though, the News had the big edge being an evening paper. The Free Press never had coverage of the previous night's games while the News did. For that I liked the News a lot better.
I hope they can survive in a web-only format. Continuing to print up actual newspapers seems like a lost cause.
Its sad because it means people lose jobs, but I doubt the people working there haven't seen this coming. The writing's on the wall. Newspapers are a dying breed. They've been dying for years, and the tiny subset of the population that still likes physical papers are getting smaller by the day. People generally want their information online in the form of blogs, twitter, or by other nation-wide news outlets.
Unless you're talking about the NYT, USA Today, and maybe the Washington Post, I doubt paper subscriptions will be around on a large scale for much longer.
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That would be sad. I grew up reading the News (my family subscribed) and still visit the website often. I appreciate that it's still a free site at a time when a lot of newspapers make people pay after they've read a certain number of articles.
If you support the News, make sure to click on their banner ads when you visit, to give them some revenue.
I suppose we can expect a column Albom will write about how he was sitting with a couple msu bb recruits in the boardroom when the descision went down. Sharp will no doubt blame The News' demise on UM.