News to try out e-reader device

Subscribers may soon have new electronic delivery option

Nathan Hurst and Mike Wilkinson / The Detroit News

Detroit -- Coming soon: your Detroit News on an "e-reader" device.

Along with its partner in the Detroit Media Partnership, the Detroit Free Press, The News will be among the first publications in the country to test an e-reader produced by California-based Plastic Logic this summer, with a rollout to consumers expected by the end of this year or early in 2010.

And by the third quarter of 2009, The News and Free Press will be rolled out to users of Amazon.com's popular Kindle e-reader, which hit the market in 2007.

"This will be an appealing advance in the modern delivery of news," said News Editor and Publisher Jonathan Wolman. "These e-readers will give our subscribers a convenient and environmentally friendly way to view the paper, and to tote it around."

Monday's e-reader announcement was made by Dave Hunke, CEO of the partnership that handles business functions for Detroit's two daily newspapers, as The News and Free Press embarked on a series of sweeping changes to cut costs while maintaining quality.

The papers printed more than a half-million copies of Monday's editions and distributed them free at stores and street corners to introduce readers to their new formats and delivery schedule.

Home delivery of both papers is available Thursdays and Fridays, and the Free Press will be home delivered on Sundays. Both papers will be available at newsstands and boxes on nondelivery days.

Accompanying the new printing schedule are daily e-editions, which provide interactive, on-screen replicas of the day's newspaper via computer for subscribers. The papers' content also will continue to be available online, free at detnews.com and freep.com and on mobile devices such as BlackBerrys and iPhones, via each paper's mobile edition.

Customer reaction was mixed. Some loyal readers were distressed that they didn't get the paper at home Monday morning. Others acknowledged that the changes -- which aim to support two independent, comprehensive newsrooms in the region -- were necessary.

"I just see it as the sign of the times," said Al Gebarowski, 70, of Macomb Township. He picked up a paper at a Warren gas station before meeting friends at Tim Hortons in Sterling Heights.

Some readers called the newsroom, having forgotten about the change in delivery, which was announced in December, or bemoaning the loss of some favorite features, such as the daily bridge column and Spider-Man comic.

Monday's News took on a bold redesign marked by more color and two sections packed with news affecting Metro Detroiters -- such as General Motors Corp. CEO Rick Wagoner's ouster, and Michigan State's basketball team reaching the Final Four.

Reader interest in the newspapers' e-editions overwhelmed the computer servers hosting them in the morning. By mid-afternoon Monday, more than 200,000 users had perused the News' e-edition. A spokeswoman said heavy demand during usual high-volume computer usage periods -- morning, lunch and dinner -- had created longer than expected wait times. The partnership is working with its vendor to rectify the situation.

The financially battered newspaper industry, which has seen a number of papers shut down or convert to online products, is closely watching Detroit.

In recent weeks, the Rocky Mountain News shuttered in Denver, the Christian Science Monitor converted from a daily to weekly paper, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer moved to online-only operations. The Ann Arbor News will close in July and be replaced by AnnArbor.com, which will distribute news daily online and twice-weekly in print. Papers in Flint, Saginaw and Bay City will cut print editions to three days a week.

nhurst@detnews.com (313) 222-2293