Saturday, January 03, 2009

 

How bad are things in Detroit?


As you might imagine, I heard a lot of depressing news in Detroit. Plants are closing, stores are closing, and people who can are moving. I even heard about a friend of the family who bought a decent house in a nice suburb for... $11,000.

For some reason, though, the news that struck me as strangest was the announcement that the city's two daily newspapers, the Free Press and the News, will no longer have a daily home-delivery edition. You will only be able to get a paper at your door on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Wow-- that's pretty grim. Detroit is the only major city where you can't get the local paper delivered every day.

Comments:
I guess I left at the perfect time.
 
Alas, newspapers have been facing troubles for several years prior to these dark days. Advertising revenue began plummeting four years ago -- but NOT to the Internet. Stores just aren't advertising as much anywhere. Young people don't read much of anything, much less newspapers.
What's most troubling is that traditionally newspapers have been one of the few sources of accountability for politics and government in this country. Individual bloggers don't have the resources or the interest in long, expensive investigations, CNN, ABC, NBC, and CBS News have financial troubles of their own ... in fact, both local and national TV quit doing most exposes years ago ... and most of the serious watch dog agencies have been gutted in recent years.
Also intriguing is the RISE in newspaper readership in the former Soviet bloc countries, Africa, and the Pacific Rim.
Dangerous times, indeed. It's a shame about The Detroit Free Press, a genuinely excellent newspaper.
RFDIII
 
I have a friend that is moving from Grosse Isle to Grosse Pointe and I gave him GP advice and stuff but I really wanted to tell him, how about moving to another state?

He cannot do that, because he runs his family business. it is pretty recession proof for him but still I feel terrible for the people I know there.
 
I was sorry to hear about this a couple months ago. On the other hand, most 'local', big city papers have been shrinking for the reasons posted by RFD3. Given Detroits economic situation, I am not sure if I consider it a 'BIG' city anymore. But people certainly should be able to buy the local rag.

When we lived in Tampa we subsicribed to the SP Times, a truly great newspaper. But they have made cuts and format changes that made reading the printed paper less than inspiring and raised the price for a 'smaller' paper.

Here in Durham we subscribe to the NY Times and occassionally pick up the local paper on Sunday.

I like a 'hard' copy of the paper, but have allergies to many of the inks (or papers) including the Times. I find reading the paper on-line difficult and that I miss 'things'.

In lieu of the paper we are avid NPR listeners, which helps fill in the international gaps.
 
Gosh that sounds awful. I can't believe anybody could buy a house for $11,000 . . . I'm still stuck on that one . . .
 
LDT-- Actually, everything fell apart BECAUSE you left.
 
Well, don't those people know that what they should do is sell their homes, move to a more economically viable place, live on the streets for a few years, but work really, really hard, all in the hopes that some nice person will hire them and pay them enough money to better themselves.

BOOTSTRAPS DON'T HOIST THEMSELVES, YOU KNOW!
 
I get emails every week from Granholm begging me to return.

I guess proof of my greatness is found in Waco newspapers saying that Waco won't be hit hard. It is shocking to see the impact a single person can make on a community.
 
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