I get pretty excited anytime something new or innovative happens in the field of journalism. Recent example include Google Wave, the Texas Tribune and even AnnArbor.com, to an extent.
The Detroit Daily Press was not one of them. Click the link for further proof.
The journalism screen of death.
For those of you unfamiliar with the venture… brothers Gary and Mark Stern, who are longtime publishers in Detroit and elsewhere, came up with the idea of launching a 7-day home delivery newspaper since the Detroit News and Free Press cut delivery by four days. The Daily Press, based in suburb Royal Oak, published its first edition Nov. 23.
However, by that Friday, production of the Daily Press was postponed until Jan. 1 because of complications in circulation and advertising. It took less than a week. And it’s not even certain if it’s coming back.
No offense to the Stern brothers or anybody employed by the Daily Press; I’m sure they are hard-working people and meant well when attacking that niche in the Detroit market left open by the two big newspapers. But this venture reeked from the very beginning. And my beef has little to do with the supposed circulation/advertising problems, which is a tremendous oversight in itself (the Press was on pace to lose more than $1 million in less than two months!)
The screen above and on the right is what you see when you go to detdailypress.com, then click on the “Delivered 7 days to your door!” advertisement plastered on the page. It is this type of screen where modern-day news organizations go to die. You can’t gate your Web presence like this and expect to stay in operation. Especially if you have DetNews.com and Freep.com to deal with. Journalism is moving fast toward the digital world and, if you want to be a successful news operation, you have to keep up with it. Asking for my subscription number when I go to your Web site is not the way to do it.
Again, I realize the niche market the Daily Press is trying to nab. It is going after the population still seeking 7-day delivery, mainly an older audience. So its primary news delivery is via print. That’s great and all, but what are your long-term goals? Do you expect this operation to stay afloat in 10 years?
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I apologize for the lack of updates. The last month has been busy, as usual. But the end of the semester at Central Michigan Life is just about here (minus a GMAC Bowl tabloid we’re releasing Wednesday), and I have an exam and a project to do this week before winter break begins.
Hopefully, I’ll be able to update a few times over the following three weeks. Stay tuned.
Posted by Brian Manzullo at December 7, 2009
Journalism, Updates