Election

Do the Freep/News need a leader like Mike Duggan?

July 02, 2012, 3:23 PM

<img data-cke-saved-src="https://dd-img-test.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/15_35_59_299_imgres.jpeg" src="https://dd-img-test.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/15_35_59_299_imgres.jpeg" data-id="205" "http:="" webcache.googleusercontent.com="" search?q="cache:Y9tFpHAhIxcJ:www.detroitnews.com/article/20120429/OPINION03/204290307+nolan+finley+mike+duggan&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=safari&quot;" target="_blank">force to be reckoned with.” It’s also clear the folks at the Detroit News and Free Press are fan boy crazy about the guy.

Though Duggan hasn’t publicly indicated he’s running for mayor of Detroit in any way, both papers have covered his “campaign” in a manner that goes well beyond the usual political hot stove chatter. It’s clear, based on the at-least-weekly Duggan-for-mayor stories that the ink-stained scribes on Lafayette view the coronation of Mayor Duggan as a fait accompli.

Of course, the way things are going for the city of Detroit, one must wonder if Duggan wants a job that might leave him below Joe Harris whomever might be named emergency manager on the city org chart.

Duggan would have to answer to no one except Gannett stockholders as Detroit Media Partnership CEO. And at these prices, he could probably buy the stockholders out with the newsroom's empties. In essence, he would have free reign to fix one (two? no, let’s say it’s one) of the city’s oldest and most cherished institutions.

The question isn’t whether Mike Duggan can turn around the newspapers. Having been (according to reports) delivered to us in a basket of reeds, we know Duggan can lead any organization into their promised land. The question is whether the newspapers are ready for his leadership.

At the very least, with a “go-to guy” like Mike Duggan running the newspapers, they probably wouldn’t waste so much time speculating on the prospects of a non-campaign a full year before an election. -- JTW


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