The Detroit newspaper experiment

Have you ever noticed that most people on the commuter train are reading the free daily instead of the Globe or Herald. Not everyone of course, as there are people who bring aboard the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and paid Boston papers, but the free papers appear to have much more page traffic and as such, could be better serving advertisers. There are days when a hawker is trying to sell the Herald in front of South Station without much success. Then, sometimes in the afternoon there is a battalion of people with stacks of Heralds giving them out to people entering the station and when they are free business is brisk. Too often the newspaper business overlooks the basics of bringing buyer benefits to the advertisers, and without heavy penetration into the prime market, free or paid, advertising in most papers is tremendously overpriced, and thus, the roadmap to failure.Deep penetration into the market at almost all cost, including good journalistic content, has always been the roadmap to success but somehow seems to be overlooked too much this past decade during this self-destructive path to failure.

Ron: Metro is supposedly in quite a bit of difficulty. The Times Co. ought to croak it and come up with a new freebie featuring all Globe content. The freebie should relentlessly promote Boston.com and the paid edition of the Globe.

Newspapers need to charge less to be more profitable. But, at a million a week down the rat hole, it takes a lot of courage to inverse.

Personally I think this is another foolish idea by an industry floundering for solutions.Home delivery subscribers represent a reliable base — day in and day out. We pay cash, in advance, and a little extra for the privilege of having something tossed on the porch (or in the bushes).Yet many papers (are you reading this Globe?) treat subscribers like dirt.Instead of chopping home delivery, the Detroit papers should be looking for ways to boost their base.

There was a time when the milkman delivered to the house, and prior to that the ice man, vegetable man, baker, fish peddler, etc. That died off after refrigeration. Maybe the Internet is doing the same to newspapers. It does seem different, though, as many of us who check our emails in the morning still want to walk out the box and pick up a newspaper in the morning, and find a magazine in our mailbox in the afternoon.We wonder though, if Metropolitan daily newspapers will turn into weeklies some day.If there is a synergy opportunity to exploit with the Herald and other Ottaway daily newspapers, it will be in selling combination national advertising and preparing common pages with national and foreign news to run with those pages. Thus, only the local advertising and news need be exclusive for the local daily, reducing further local page composition and cost.

The printed DetNews and Freep will still be delivered 7 days a week, using US Mail for the 4 days that aren’t carrier-delivered. Usually for local newspapers that means same-day delivery. That should be a solution for many who like to read the news on paper.