In Detroit, the future is now

The Detroit Plan is “cutting edge, innovative and based on technology,” according to Paul Anger, who is Vice President, Publisher and Editor of the Detroit Free Press.

While cutting back home delivery to three days a week may sound more “cutting” than “cutting edge,” the plan is showing impressive results. And Anger’s presentation was among the highlights of the 20th annual Interactive Media Conference today in New Orleans.

Side note about the conference: attendance is down 27%, from 304 to 233. Some newspaper companies have had sharper declines in revenue, so all things being relative, that’s not too bad. (It’s easier to meet people and network in a smaller conference, but the sessions feel a little flat when the rooms are half empty.)

The basic business formula of “The Detroit Plan” is to use the remaining three days of home-delivered revenue, growing online revenue, expense savings based on four less days of home delivery and a fully staffed newsroom. The savings on home delivery are huge: Anger said Detroit newspaper’s trucks distributing the Free Press and Detroit News drove the equivalent of “to the moon and back” in a week’s time.

Anger also said the plan is the “good news in Detroit” in a year that the auto industry is crumbling, the mayor was ousted and the Lions went winless.

The results from 6 weeks: 3.5% of print subscribers canceled, 30,000 read the e-Editions online, 7,000 receive a print copy same-day through the mail, and traffic on detnews.com and freep.com has increased.

Anger said the company really had no choice but to make a dramatic change to its operations. The economy in Detroit is so bad and the average age of a print subscriber is 60. Not pretty.

He reported positive feedback from both readers and advertisers (while admitting it’s still very early) and announced plans to lease e-readers by the end of the year. The devices are being developed by Plastic Logic.

However the Detroit Plan ultimately fares, the company’s swift and dramatic action to take control of its future is both impressive and admirable. In Detroit, at least, the future really is now.

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