Organized labor has been on the ropes for many years, not just in Detroit but throughout the United States. Whether you find this to be good or bad will depend on your politics, but it remains an incontrovertible fact. That's why three of the country's largest unions—representing auto workers, steel workers and machinists—have recently voted to merge. And it's a major reason why six unions—representing journalists, press operators and drivers, among others—voted to strike in Detroit.

The city has two daily newspapers, each owned by a major chain. These are the Free Press (Knight-Ridder) and the News (Gannett); the papers have been published under a Joint Operating Agreement since 1989. JOAs—in Detroit, San Francisco and other locales—operate under the federal Newspaper Preservation Act to achieve economies by sharing their physical plant, including buildings and presses.

The strikers have established their own paper on the Web, just as their counterparts in San Francisco did last year. In this case the paper is the Detroit Journal, and it's a solid effort. There is little Internet competition from the Free Press, which has so many journalists on strike that it has had to settle for a minimalist Gopher site in lieu of the Web. But the News offers plenty of competition. Selected as an InfiNet "Cool Site of the Day," it is both hipper and more wide-ranging than the Journal, though not as thorough or balanced in its strike coverage—and not nearly as complete in overall coverage as the Gannett USA Today or Knight-Ridder Mercury Center sites.

So which side is making a stronger case on the Net? Again, it's likely your political predilection will determine the answer. At this point, barring unforeseen developments, we'd balance the Journal's superior strike coverage against the media savvy of the News site and call it a draw.

(Editor's Note: the strike was finally settled, to no one's great satisfaction, late in 2000. The Detroit Journal ceased publication at that time.)

(Reviewed July 31, 1995)