By Joel Thurtell
[paypal-donation]
I never saw a copy of the short-lived Detroit Daily Pres
I gather it was distributed in some parts of the Detroit area.
Maybe because I was in Canada most of last summer, I was slow to learn about the proposed new daily print newspaper for Detroit.
I think, though, that publicity about the Daily Press was muted. Check out the Detroit Free Press report on the new paper’s demise. “Terse” does not begin to describe the Freep’s approach. Curious, when you recall all the breast-thumping Freepsters did when they were rolling the Kwame bandwagon. This report was based solely on the Daily Press Facebook notice that it was closing — no quotes from anyone connected with the fledgling paper, which for a story about any non-rival business would have been de rigeur. The Detroit News’s story had a bit more text, but no original reporting beyond the Facebook information. The newshounds were dozing on this one.
Oh well, clearly an upstart rival isn’t a subject the established but no longer daily Detroit News and Detroit Free Press would want to publicize.
I read a short item in Editor & Publisher, and I heard about it from friends — former News and Free Press employees — who were approached to help put the new paper out.
Asked what I thought, I could only say that I liked the idea of a daily, though it seemed early for a new one in and around Detroit.
Too early, because while no longer dailies, the Free Press and News are still alive. Like a rattlesnake with a broken back, the Detroit papers still have venom. Their long-established presence casts a shadow over efforts by a newcomer to get readers, advertisers and — most important — credibility.
Then too, the economy is in terrible shape. The established papers are in deep weeds because businesses aren’t buying ads. Why would someone who can’t afford ads in the old-line papers suddenly be inspired to invest in ads in a brand-new and unproven medium?
Better wait for the News and Free Press to roll over dead, was my thought. Wait for a true newspaper vacuum.
But, as I say, my thinking was based on little information about the paper’s financial backing, its internal organization, its journalistic goals.
Nevertheless, I was looking for the Daily Press on November 23, the first day it was supposed to publish. I’d asked someone connected with the new paper how I could subscribe. I got no answer.
That Monday, November 23, 2009, I didn’t see the Daily Press in gas stations or drugstores where I normally see newspapers for sale.
Then, the day after Thanksgiving, while sitting in my mom’s house outside Lowell, I read a short item in the Grand Rapids Press noting that the new paper was dead.
Here’s the Detroit Daily Press comment about its own fate:
Due to circumstances beyond our control, lack of advertising, lateness of our press runs and lack of distribution and sales, we find it necessary to temporarily suspend publication of the Detroit Daily Press until after the 1st of the year. Once we can fix these things, we plan to be back stronger and more organized when we return. This is just a bump in the road and not the end of the Detroit Daily Press.
What does this mean?
I’ll try to decode.
“Circumstances beyond our control”
Means — maybe — there wasn’t enough money for advance work. A new paper needs to be heavily advertised and promoted so people don’t have to e-mail its staffers to find out how to subscribe.
“Lack of advertising”
Means there was very little if any provision for selling ads, which normally requires feet on the street. Again, I’d guess that lack of money meant few ad sales reps roaming the affluent suburbs pounding on doors of businesses that might pay for an ad.
“Lateness of our press runs”
Could mean many things. Were journalists missing deadlines? Were presses breaking down? There was a suggestion in a Detroit blog that printers wanted money up front. Well, I guess if I were a printer working for an unknown newspaper, I’d want to be paid in advance, too. But it again boils down to lack of money.
The same blog implied that the established papers were making trouble. I don’t know, but would not be surprised. What would you expect? Gannett owns the newspaper industry in Detroit and environs and is not known for playing soft ball. Best have a strategy for keeping them at bay, or suffer the consequences.
“Distribution and sales”
If you’re going to sell a newspaper, you’d better know how to deliver it. First, though, you need to find customers willing to buy it. If you neglect either of these tasks, you’re in trouble.
Failure to secure any one of these boldface line items would sink even an established newspaper.
To bundle all of these failures together and describe them as “just a bump in the road” strikes me as hugely self-deceptive.
But hey, I know very little about what happened. If I’m wrong, if you know more, please drop me a line at joelthurtell@gmail.com.
