Today the Detroit News and the Detroit Pree Press announced that they will cut their home delivery to only three days a week. They are the first major newspapers in the country to make this decision. Newspapers will still be published daily in small, abbreviated editions, but will only be available at newsstands and retail outlets. Only the Thursday, Friday and Sunday editions will be delivered to homes. Online subscriptions will also be available. But it isn't the same as picking up the paper from the front porch and reading it with one's morning coffee, is it?
Oh, yes, the newspapers will be shaving about 200 jobs from their payrolls at the same time...
In my extremely modest little neighborhood where my studio is located, the situation has become really dire. I have lost most of my neighbors and every house around my studio house is empty. There is no life on the street. The inevitable result of all these foreclosures and inability to come up with rent money is that some homeowners and landlords simply resort to arson to rid themselves of an unwanted house. I am afraid it will become hard to tell which homes have succumbed to furnace fires, faulty Christmas lights, or the bad economy. This home met its end sometime last week.
