Detroit’s Two Daily Newspapers Split for Real — and the Fight for Readers Is Back
Detroit, Jan 8, 2026, 07:17 EST Detroit’s two daily newspapers are back on their own after the country’s last joint operating agreement between major papers expired, reopening a head-to-head rivalry that had been walled off on the business side for decades. The split matters because it forces both publishers to carry their own costs again — printing, sales, distribution — at a moment when local news budgets are tight and readers are trained to graze online. It also makes Detroit a live test of whether two metro dailies can stay standing without shared scaffolding. A joint operating agreement, or JOA,
