Detroit Daily Press Closes

The Detroit Daily Press, which suspended its operations in December after only three editions, and encounted a several month delayed launch, has permanently closed its business.

Karen Dybols of the Detroit Blog quotes Mark and Gary Stern, the publishers and founders of the Detroit Daily Press:

"We've done everything possible to re-launch the Detroit Daily Press but the circulation issues persist," said Mark Stern, Co-publisher. "We tried to get union support and provide jobs. But the unions' demands would make it impossible for us to exist". …

"We tried to provide the Detroit area with a 7 day home delivered newspaper for 50 cents daily and $1.00 on Sundays while the other guys charge $1.00 daily and $1.50 on Sundays and they only deliver 3 days a week. And we set our advertising rates at only one-fourth of their rates. We could afford to do that because we don't have the fixed costs they do for owning presses, big buildings, trucks, pension funds and outstanding debt. But even the best newspaper at an affordable price to both the readers and advertisers can't work if it doesn't get into the hands of the public. And circulation is the key issue," added Mark Stern.

Detroit Daily Press Suspends Publication

The Detroit Daily Press announced on their Facebook page December 3rd that they were temporarily suspending publication of the paper.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, lack of advertising, lateness of our press runs and lack of distribution and sales, we find it necessary to temporarily suspend publication of the Detroit Daily Press until after the 1st of the year. Once we can fix these things, we plan to be back stronger and more organized wh...en we return. This is just a bump in the road and not the end of the Detroit Daily Press.

Detroit Daily Press to Launch Nov 23rd

The Detroit Daily Press is finally launching a print edition, starting Monday, November 23rd with single copy sales and Monday, November 30th with home delivery. The initial edition will have a distribution of approximately 200,000. This publication launch has been in discussion since June 2010 and now will come to fruition.

Detroit Daily Press

Mark Stern and Gary Stern, veteran publishers in the newspaper industry, have announced that they intend to create a new daily newspaper for the Detroit market called The Detroit Daily Press.

They expect to launch the new newspaper within 60 days, selling for fifty cents daily and $1 on Sundays.

The Sterns are currently working to secure contracts with two printing plants and lease office space. They are also looking to hire department heads, which given the number of newspaper employees laid off nationally (and locally), should give them many options to consider.

The paper is expected to start small, and then grow based on advertising revenue increases. The Sterns believe their paper can be financially viable as it will not be burdened with the legacy cost issues such as pension funds, old trucks, and facilities, which contribute to the debt problems of existing struggling papers.

The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press have stopped home delivery on Monday through Wednesday, and Saturday, restricting its home delivery to only Thursday, Friday and Sunday. This is leaving an opportunity, the Sterns believe, for another daily publication to fill the market need.