Management to address Freep, Detroit News rumors next week
Job cuts, online publication expected to be covered
By Bill Shea
Rumored shifts from paper to online publication and further job cuts at the Detroit Free Press and the partnership that controls its shared business functions with The Detroit News are expected to be addressed next week by the newspaper’s management.
Free Press Publisher David Hunke, who is also in charge of the 95 percent Gannett Co. Inc.-controlled Detroit Media Partnership, sent a memo to staff today discussing the impending announcement, but did not reveal any details.
The memo reads:
Quote:
“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 have centered on speculation the newspaper (and possibly both) would shift to a print edition on Thursdays and Sundays, and online publication the rest of the week. Some online speculation says a secret effort called “Project Griffin” has limited print editions available for newsstand or box sales, with full home delivery just two or three days weekly.
Crain’s first reported about a potential online-print change in July, and Hunke has repeatedly denied that was going to happen, as late as Nov. 30.
Calls to Hunke’s office were referred to Leland Bassett, chairman and CEO of the Detroit-based public-relations firm Bassett & Bassett Inc.
“The Detroit Media Partnership is looking at everything right now. No decisions have been made,” Bassett said.
He declined to address any speculation or say when the partnership hired his firm.
Speculation also has been fueled by the launch of the digitalfreepress.com and edetroitnews.com Web sites and by mailers offering online and limited home delivery.
The newspaper is expected to make job cuts, possibly up to 300 staffers, and other budget moves as its parent company, Virginia-based Gannett, has launched a company-wide effort to trim costs — including an estimated 2,000 layoffs in its newspaper division this month.
The Free Press, however, is in a separate division with company flagship USA Today, and both newspapers have been expected to unveil their own cost-reduction plans separated from Gannett’s October mandate to trim 10 percent of its 30,000-person newspaper unit staff. That’s atop 1,000 jobs lost back in August.
Hunke previously said the partnership will centralize its credit and finance staff, likely in Indianapolis and Springfield, Ill., resulted in an undetermined number of job losses.
More than 200 staff have left 320,000-circulation Free Press, the partnership and the MediaNews-owed 190,000-subscriber News over the past year, mainly through voluntary buyouts. It’s believed about 2,000 people are left at the two newspapers and the partnership.
Hunke told Crain’s in November that staffing levels would be addressed as part a first-quarter strategic plan, which is what next week’s announcement is expected to detail.
The changes stem from a third quarter that saw a 17.7 percent decline in Gannett (NYSE: GCI) print ad revenue, to $977 million from $1.2 billion a year ago. Overall net revenue declined 9 percent to $1.6 billion. Its stock has tumbled to more than $90 a few years ago to $5 last month.
Newspapers across the country have seen severe declines in advertising revenue and circulation, and layoffs and consolidations are common.
Tracking the Gannett cuts paper by paper (along with speculation, comments from laid-off employees, links to related stories and analysis) is the independent gannettblog.blogspot.com.
For other Gannett papers in Michigan, its running tally shows 50 of 105 jobs were eliminated from the Battle Creek Enquirer, 31 of 403 at the Lansing State Journal and five of 260 at the Times Herald in Port Huron. Some printing and copyediting functions are expected to be consolidated among those newspapers.
