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Nieman Journalism Lab
Nieman Journalism Lab
Pushing to the future of journalism — A project of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard

Bob Giles on the Detroit newspapers

Bob Giles is (a) my boss here at the Nieman Foundation and (b) the former editor and publisher of The Detroit News. So I wanted to get his views of the Detroit newspapers’ massive announcement yesterday that they would no longer be offering home delivery seven days a week. Here’s our 11-minute conversation, in which we discuss:

— The benefits of having two Detroit newspapers, even if limited in distribution, over a single 7-day-a-week paper;
— The role of the 1990s Detroit newspaper strike on the papers’ current situation;
— What not publishing on Wednesday tells us about ad revenues;
— The kinds of cost savings the newspapers could achieve with the cuts;
— Why Detroit is a better single-copy town than you’d think;
— Why The Oakland Press is a player to watch.

Also, thanks to my sub-par camera placement, you get to see a lot what appears to be Bob’s enormous right thumb.

                                   
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