The owners of the Detroit Free Press plan to acquire the Detroit News.

USA Today‘s announcement comes less than a month after Michigan’s largest daily newspapers ended a joint operating agreement they entered in 1989.

The Free Press was failing at the time. The JOA allowed both papers to maintain separate newsrooms while combining other parts of their businesses such as printing.

The JOA ended in December 2025. Shortly thereafter, the News announced plans to print its first separate Sunday edition in 36 years. Then it delayed the Sunday paper rollout a few days before USA Today’s takeover announcement.

What happens now?

USA Today CEO Mike Reed says the company will continue to publish separate editions. But for how long?

Bill Shea is a writer based in Hazel Park. He wrote about the city’s newspapers for Crain’s Detroit Business for more than a decade. He also worked for USA Today’s predecessor, Gannett. Shea says before they became partners, the papers were fierce competitors.

“These newsrooms used to have hundreds and hundreds of people in all the various roles,” he says. “Reporters, editors, photographers, copy editors…the whole gamut.”

But as technology changed, so did readers’ habits.

“Customers no longer wanted print as much as they used to,” Shea says.

Both papers have a strong online presence. Shea says that will allow them to stay the course editorially in the short term.

“They both get a lot of eyeballs digitally,” he says. “Maintaining separate newsrooms to keep that up is probably the path for now.”

Is a one-paper town inevitable?

But Shea warns that the new owners might lay off reporters to maximize profits.

“I fully expect to hear the crappy corporate-speak of ‘finding efficiencies to better serve our readers and partners,’ which just means job cuts,” he says.

Shea says fewer journalists means fewer stories to cover. He says that would hurt readers, too.

“Because you’re losing out on that vital storytelling in an age where we absolutely need…as many people as possible telling these stories, holding power and capital accountable,” he says.

USA Today said it expected to close the deal before the end of January. It would not say how much it’s paying to acquire the News or whether it will follow through with a separate Sunday edition.