The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press

Will we have newspapers in five years?

As a 4th grader in Kingsley, Mich., mom would stop every morning so I could get a Detroit News before going to school. This may have gone on the rest of my early school days, too, but I remember 4th grade. Maybe because the Tigers had a great year. I read the News, not the Free Press. One of Grandpa Morgan's good friends was Joe Falls, News sports editor. Maybe it was loyalty to Grandpa and his buddy, or maybe it was the better writing in the News. Anyhow, that's what I read. Oh, and the Traverse City Record–Eagle after school was good reading.

Still today, one of my early morning stops is at the sites for the News, Free Press, and Eagle. Maybe I'm a news junkie or maybe I just can't break those crazy habits.

Today, the two Detroit papers made a major announcement. Below, I have information directly from the Detroit News:

Dealing with decreasing revenues and rising costs in a state hammered by a long economic downturn, the Detroit Media Partnership unveiled a plan that seeks to preserve papers born in the 19th century by maximizing the technology of the 21st.

By late March, home delivery will end except on Thursdays and Fridays at both papers and Sundays at the Free Press. During the rest of the week, smaller "compact" editions of both papers will be available at newsstands. Subscribers also will be able to view the paper online through an "electronic" edition that will resemble the printed page.

The plan ensures The News will continue to be printed six days a week and the Free Press seven days. Both detnews.com and freep.com will provide expanded content.

"We think the strategy can break the cycle of buyouts and downsizing and send us on a path of innovation and growth. And I mean it," said Jonathan Wolman, editor and publisher of The News. "With this initiative, we're laying plans to modernize the daily paper while expanding the immediacy and impact of our digital services."

I wonder what a fourth grader would do today, especially with the announcement that the paper is going to be abbreviated, but most likely won't even make it as far as Kingsley. Maybe the fourth grader would use his smart phone and read the news via RSS feed on the Internet ... Yea, that's what a digital native (extreme) would do. A fourth grader today (25 years later) HAS NEVER READ A PAPER!!!