Motown Blues   

In "Paper Losses," his book on the joint operating agreement between the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press , Bryan Gruley painted a bleak picture of the future of newspapers in the Motor City (see Books, March 1994).

With the papers in the grip of a long, bitter strike that may add Detroit to the growing roster of one-paper towns, Gruley, 38, would feel much better if he had been proven wrong.

"I wish that the JOA and labor situations worked out differently so that everyone could say, 'Gruley's conclusions were all off the mark,' " he says. "I'd be happy to eat my words."

Gruley, a passionate advocate for the News, spent 11 years covering business for the paper in both Detroit and Washington. But now he has left the Battle of Detroit, joining the Wall Street Journal as a Washington correspondent. His beat: antitrust and transportation.

Gruley says the strike figured only marginally in his decision. It was, he says, simply time for a new challenge.

Some 2,500 workers walked off their jobs at the two papers on July 13; 376 had returned to work by November 10. Incidents of violence have come to characterize the strike, including the discovery of three bombs at various newspaper racks. The papers have continued to publish, though combined circulation was 670,000 in mid-November, compared to 886,000 before the strike.

Ultimatums and proposed compromises have come and gone; parents Knight-Ridder, which owns the Free Press, and Gannett, which owns the News, report losses in the millions.

Gruley fondly remembers the days of fierce competition between the two papers before the JOA, when "we still hated the Free Press and they hated us." He says the rivalry is what made his stint in Detroit so memorable, because "competition is fun, it's engaging, it makes you better."

As for the current strife, Gruley says there's plenty of blame to go around. "Both sides can claim responsibility for the current strike situation... It hurts me to watch it."