Discuss Detroit » Archives - Beginning January 2006 » Freep Sunday paper not what it used to be? « Previous Next »
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Digitaldom
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Username: Digitaldom

Post Number: 437
Registered: 08-2004
Posted From: 24.192.148.150
Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 9:20 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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!
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1953
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Username: 1953

Post Number: 823
Registered: 12-2004
Posted From: 65.54.98.158
Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 9:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Yep. It pretty well sucks. Someone should start a New York Times quality paper with Detroit in the bi-line.
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Digitaldom
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Username: Digitaldom

Post Number: 438
Registered: 08-2004
Posted From: 24.192.148.150
Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 9:27 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

No kidding.. I enjoy reading the paper on Sunday's.. No such luck now.. ohh well.. Guess I will have to find another paper..
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Barnesfoto
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Username: Barnesfoto

Post Number: 1981
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 66.2.148.32
Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 10:03 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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...
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Ray1936
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Username: Ray1936

Post Number: 554
Registered: 01-2005
Posted From: 207.200.116.139
Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 10:21 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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?
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Dodgemain
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Username: Dodgemain

Post Number: 97
Registered: 04-2005
Posted From: 68.41.191.58
Posted on Sunday, May 14, 2006 - 10:25 pm:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Right here.

http://www.wn.com/detroit
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Kilgore_south
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Username: Kilgore_south

Post Number: 46
Registered: 05-2005
Posted From: 24.176.20.117
Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 12:33 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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??
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Paulmcall
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Username: Paulmcall

Post Number: 674
Registered: 05-2004
Posted From: 68.40.119.216
Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 11:16 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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Restoretheroar
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Username: Restoretheroar

Post Number: 691
Registered: 07-2004
Posted From: 199.67.138.84
Posted on Monday, May 15, 2006 - 11:27 am:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

I thought I was reading the USA Today, when reading the new 'Sunday Free Press'.
The Gannett credit in small print confirmed my suspicion.
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

"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.
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)


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?
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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..
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

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.
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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:   Edit PostDelete Post   Move Post (Moderator/Admin Only)

Didn't know about all those tricks, Oldredfordette. But I'm not surprised.

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