Residents of Detroit didn't have a local paper on their doorstep to read to find out Monday's General Motors news -- which was happening right in their backyard. Under a new distribution model
that started this week, Gannett's Detroit Free Press and MediaNews Group's Detroit News only offer home delivery on Thursday and Friday, while the Free Press arrives
Sunday.
On other days, the two papers publish a small print paper that's sold only on newsstands. On Monday, the two dailies marked the start of their new system by distributing
about a half-million copies of the abbreviated papers free at 18,000 locations throughout Michigan.
Thanks to the auto industry shakeup, visits to the papers' web sites were way up on
Monday, which apparently was a surprise for the papers. Heavy traffic meant the Web pages were "very slow to load" for part of the morning.
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