How to cut your own throat

Via Megan McArdle, I see that the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press are taking a novel approach to the malaise that’s crippling newspapers across America (and Britain): make it much more difficult for people to buy your product. At first you may think that this is so counter-intuitive that it must be brilliant. But it’s not: it’s every bit as stupid (I think!) as it sounds.

The Motor City papers are apparently only going to deliver papers to their readers’ homes three days out of every seven. The theory, as I understand it, is that all this printing and delivering is too expensive to be justified on lighter advertising days such as Monday and Tuesday. In future, then, Detroiters will have to find a news-stand to buy the paper or, of course, read it online.

Now, sure, advertising revenue is falling off a cliff at the moment and there’s no prospect of a recovery in the short-to-medium term.