Chelsea Murray was the Online Editor for the Summer 2010 issue of the Ryerson Review of Journalism. Newspaper pessimism continues
Just two weeks after Review writer, Matthew Halliday, wrote a blog entry about the Detroit Daily Press, the paper announced that it has temporarily suspended publication. It had only been up and running for 11 days.
On December 3, a staff member posted a message to the newspaper’s Facebook wall breaking the news to readers. The paper had run into printing problems, couldn’t get enough advertisers and had a lack of distribution and sales. The message read: “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.”
It’s hard to believe this isn’t the end. Starting a newspaper (when the news industry is transitioning online) in a shrinking city during a recession might not have been the best business decision publishers and brothers Mark and Gary Stern ever made. The Huffington Post reported today that, according to “media industry watcher” News Cycle, over 15,000 newspaper employees lost their jobs in 2009.
Maybe the Stern brothers will start printing their paper again in the new year but (to be fatalistic) in times like these it seems the odds are stacked against them.
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