By: Mark Fitzgerald Detroit Media Partnership CEO David Hunke addressed -- but did not deny -- rumors of big changes in the distribution and publication of The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press in a memo to employees Thursday.
Hunke?s memo takes on the hot rumor in Detroit these days is that Detroit two daily newspapers will eliminate home delivery, maybe entirely or maybe for most weekdays.
Until the memo, Detroit Media Partnership -- the Gannett Co.-controlled agency that runs the business, production and distribution operations of the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, which is owned by MediaNews Group -- has said nothing about the supposed project. An E&P call to Detroit Media late Wednesday was returned by a public relations firm.
Here is what Hunke wrote: "In the past 24 hours you have no doubt heard a lot of rumors and several news reports about significant changes at the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News. Clearly, over the past months we have been exploring various scenarios to reposition the companies for growth and to ensure two strong newspaper voices in the community. We plan to share details early next week with you, as well as with readers, advertisers, unions and the community. In the meantime, let's continue to focus on doing the best job we can and on building the strongest relationships we can among ourselves and with our customers."
The rumors broke into print in a column by longtime Detroit media critic and journalist Jack Lessenberry, writing in the alternative weekly Metro Times. Lessenberry said he could not nail down the facts behind the rumors, but noted that it is an unusually detailed tale being told in the city's newspaper circles.
More details, or rumors, were added Thursday by Jim Hopkins, the former USA Today business writer and editor who runs "Gannett Blog."
There are different versions of what "Project Griffin," as it is allegedly called, entails.
Under some accounts, home deliver of the Free Press would be halted except for Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays. Another account has both papers going to the schedule. In another version a single-copy paper would be the only print paper available when there is no home delivery.
If true, this would make the 320,000-circulation Free Press and the 190,00 News by far the biggest U.S. papers yet to drop, or effectively, drop a day's publication.
Lessenberry wrote that, if true, the project could mean big changes for the News, which is a "limited" partner in the Detroit Media Partnership that is 95% controlled by Gannett.
"It is hard to believe Detroit Newspapers Inc. would continue to run an expensive, seven-day delivery system for the smaller of the two papers," he wrote.
Links to reports about "Project Griffin" are at E&P's business-oriented
Fitz & Jen blog.
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