Digitaldom Member Username: Digitaldom
Post Number: 437 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 24.192.148.150
| Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 9:20 pm: | |
Ok.. I have been a regular reader of the Sunday news and now freep for the past 2 years.. And I have noticed a drastic change in the amount of good stories in the last 2 issues.. I mean literally I am getting through the paper in less than 30 minutes.. it's literally all ads? WTF.. Talk about a change when Freep took over, there are no stories what so ever.. Has anyone else noticed this as well? Sad really! |
1953 Member Username: 1953
Post Number: 823 Registered: 12-2004 Posted From: 65.54.98.158
| Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 9:25 pm: | |
Yep. It pretty well sucks. Someone should start a New York Times quality paper with Detroit in the bi-line. |
Digitaldom Member Username: Digitaldom
Post Number: 438 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 24.192.148.150
| Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 9:27 pm: | |
No kidding.. I enjoy reading the paper on Sunday's.. No such luck now.. ohh well.. Guess I will have to find another paper.. |
Barnesfoto Member Username: Barnesfoto
Post Number: 1981 Registered: 10-2003 Posted From: 66.2.148.32
| Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 10:03 pm: | |
A couple years ago, it used to take me 8 mintues to read the Sunday Same Difference. Now it takes four, so I seldom bother. It's like White Castle: A quick bite of sodium, no nutritional value. Oh well, better to have a sliver of what it was than to have nothing at all... |
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936
Post Number: 554 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 207.200.116.139
| Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 10:21 pm: | |
Ever since the News and Freep changed the format of their web editions, I've noticed that the weekend offerings are nothing but a re-hash of the Friday stories for the most part. I have no right to complain, I suppose, because I'm getting it for free, but it sure is not what those two papers used to put out in years gone by. Where's the Detroit Times when you really need it? |
Dodgemain Member Username: Dodgemain
Post Number: 97 Registered: 04-2005 Posted From: 68.41.191.58
| Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 10:25 pm: | |
Right here. http://www.wn.com/detroit |
Kilgore_south Member Username: Kilgore_south
Post Number: 46 Registered: 05-2005 Posted From: 24.176.20.117
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 12:33 am: | |
Yeah I'm disappointed and confused too. I thought that since the 2 papers split up, I would no longer have to see the suck-ass News op-ed section on Sunday. But right in the middle of the Freep opinion section was one page devoted to Detroit News editorials and a column by the odious Nolan Finley. WTF?? |
Paulmcall
Member Username: Paulmcall
Post Number: 674 Registered: 05-2004 Posted From: 68.40.119.216
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 11:16 am: | |
If you want a paper with some meat in it, you have to get the sunday New York Times. The Detroit papers are a lame joke. |
Restoretheroar Member Username: Restoretheroar
Post Number: 691 Registered: 07-2004 Posted From: 199.67.138.84
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 11:27 am: | |
the business section is the biggest joke. Every week the only real business news seems to come from Crains and ModelD; the News/Freep can go weeks without having any new development or construction updates. |
Mackinaw Member Username: Mackinaw
Post Number: 1511 Registered: 02-2005 Posted From: 69.221.35.202
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 11:52 am: | |
Sports is emphasized way too much in the Detroit papers. I love sports, but even I think it is too much. Are we a big sports town, or a town that just likes HYPE? C'mon, the Pistons shouldn't be front page news every day during the playoffs. Just like with everything else, we are a big HYPE town. The papers are sensationalist, even more than the rest of the media, when it comes to covering gas prices, the problems of Detroit and its industries(y), and all the stereotypes of the suburban/city divide. Our papers are all hype, and they don't even try to make up for it by covering things like culture, or producing good in-depth reporting, or stories about interesting people, or diverse and interesting opinions on their op-ed pages (it's always the same slanted crap in either direction from each paper); and whenever you look at the real estate section, it's all glossy ads for brand new houses on 35 mile, and very little content. And yes the business section is so incredibly thin...indeed we have to read Crain's to get substance. |
Wirt Member Username: Wirt
Post Number: 23 Registered: 12-2005 Posted From: 64.243.32.9
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 12:05 pm: | |
I thought I was reading the USA Today, when reading the new 'Sunday Free Press'. The Gannett credit in small print confirmed my suspicion. |
Southwestmap Member Username: Southwestmap
Post Number: 466 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 64.79.90.206
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 12:13 pm: | |
Yesterday I noted the following: long, dumb, obvious article about people having nice thoughts sitting by the water at Metro Beach - took up two pages of "Living" section. What is the ROI? However, editorial comment has been shortened to sound-bite length. Lot's of little ditsy entries. I have the impression that they aren't thinking in the editors offices, they are just dropping little newsy items in a file and then writing some brief, smart-aleck comments on each. The Freep's new "world view" of its mission is sad. I don't buy it anymore. I read it for free in Big Boy's. |
Gistok Member Username: Gistok
Post Number: 2106 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 4.229.90.174
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 3:51 pm: | |
Yep it sucks... and now you have to pay $1.50 for each (for 1/2 of what you had before). They should only be charging 75 cents for each. Someone is making a killing, at least for now. |
Smogboy Member Username: Smogboy
Post Number: 2619 Registered: 11-2004 Posted From: 69.47.100.44
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 3:58 pm: | |
Over the years I've noticed it's gotten smaller and smaller. Not just in size but content as well. It's more like a regional USAHooray now with a larger ad section. |
Bob Member Username: Bob
Post Number: 980 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 64.12.116.204
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 4:11 pm: | |
They claim this is what people want, shorter papers they can skim through because people don't have time on the weekends to read it. I hate it, it takes me half the time it used to to read the paper. |
Messykitty Member Username: Messykitty
Post Number: 5 Registered: 03-2006 Posted From: 24.21.198.33
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 4:20 pm: | |
The five dollars spent on a Sunday New York Times is more than worth it. The magazine alone is worth the $1.50 that any local Sunday paper costs. All that and none of it reads like a third grade current events lesson! Just check online for local news. |
Oldredfordette Member Username: Oldredfordette
Post Number: 726 Registered: 02-2004 Posted From: 68.60.177.56
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 4:34 pm: | |
Newspapers are like all corporations, they are driven by shareholder returns. The market demands huge returns, they take it out of things like investigative reporting and local news. There are a lot of talented hardworking reporters at both papers who feel the same way you do. But too bad, so sad. It's about the ads. They make more money selling ad space then newspapers. |
Southwestmap Member Username: Southwestmap
Post Number: 469 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 64.79.90.206
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 4:37 pm: | |
It is so sad. Here's my personal spiral of despair: When I saw that the News had added a new column: "Sex Lady/Sex Laddie" to give advice Aren't the internet and the newstand rather dull of that?); when the News had an article about how to add spice to your marriage that featured an oiled-up, half-naked man being feather-ticked by a masseuse; when I read the Free Press editorial about why white women should get behind the opposition to the Affirmative Action amendment and the editorial was so full of fantastic, half-baked fear-mongering that I was embarrassed for the Freep; when I read that Mercy HS editorial last week that reprimanded the principal of a private school for not allowing a rap artist to perform. They were more worried about her "breaking her promise" than about the rights of the school to act in a way consistant with its mission. And, I thought a HS girl wrote it because the writing was so juvenile. |
Burnsie Member Username: Burnsie
Post Number: 416 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 141.216.1.4
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 5:04 pm: | |
"It's about the ads. They make more money selling ad space then newspapers." Maybe so, but isn't the price the newspapers charge to the advertisers dictated by audited (Audit Bureau of Circulation, possibly) paid circulation figures? It all comes down to circulation numbers in the end. |
Solarflare Member Username: Solarflare
Post Number: 422 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 63.69.106.29
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 5:19 pm: | |
We actually get the paper delivered. We only wanted to get it on Sundays, but it's cheaper to get it 7 days a week. Circulation number scam, I'm sure. |
Woodward Member Username: Woodward
Post Number: 13 Registered: 02-2006 Posted From: 68.167.120.148
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 5:54 pm: | |
quote:I thought that since the 2 papers split up, I would no longer have to see the suck-ass News op-ed section on Sunday. But right in the middle of the Freep opinion section was one page devoted to Detroit News editorials and a column by the odious Nolan Finley. WTF??
There's a provision in the joint operating agreement that the News gets one page of editorial s on Sundays. Yay? |
Digitaldom Member Username: Digitaldom
Post Number: 439 Registered: 08-2004 Posted From: 24.192.148.150
| Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 9:44 pm: | |
Well.. I am glad to see I wasn't the only one.. I am about at the point to ask the Freep to become a free-lance writer.. It's really a bad paper right now.. |
Southwestmap Member Username: Southwestmap
Post Number: 470 Registered: 01-2005 Posted From: 64.79.90.206
| Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - 12:00 pm: | |
I was thinking about this last night and I realized that this site is like a "portal" for me for Detroit regional news - far more a leadership place than the News or Freep over the last several months. From this site, I am led to news articles in the local dailies and other places that are very interesting to me. I click through to them, read them and then read the pertinent comments of the posters. In many cases the posters certainly know more than the dailies' reporters. I think that i don't miss the News and Free Press lately because there is better reporting, better editorializing and more focus on the stories and information that I am/would be interested in than in the papers only - which are lately filed with copy that I am not interested in. |
Oldredfordette Member Username: Oldredfordette
Post Number: 727 Registered: 02-2004 Posted From: 68.60.177.56
| Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - 12:09 pm: | |
But think about it, Burnsie. They blanket neighborhoods with free papers (count it as circulation), sell "souvenier" editions at events (count it as circulation), Dump them in landfills (count it as circulation). All sorts of tricks (the Oakland Press is also guilty of those tricks). Add to that the monopoly they have in the area. |
Burnsie Member Username: Burnsie
Post Number: 419 Registered: 11-2003 Posted From: 35.8.219.85
| Posted on Tuesday, May 16, 2006 - 8:27 pm: | |
Didn't know about all those tricks, Oldredfordette. But I'm not surprised. |