Detroit is one of the last major two-newspaper cities, and soon it will become the first to stop home delivery on all but a handful of days and shift some of its focus to the web, in a major overhaul that highlights just how dire things have become for the nation’s major metropolitan papers.

In a move expected to be announced tomorrow, the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News will eliminate home delivery on all but their most lucrative days, presumably Sunday, Thursday and Friday.

Print issues will still be available at newsstands on other days, but they will be trimmed back from their current size, and the papers will encourage readers instead to check out daily digital editions available on their web sites.

The two papers, which are run through a joint operating agreement, are looking to save money on print and delivery costs, which have shot up over the past year with the rise in ink and gas prices.

At the same time, circulation and advertising have dried up nationwide, and that’s been especially true in Detroit, home of the Big Three automakers who are seeking a federal bailout to continue operation in the midst of a devastating recession.

The Free Press, which is owned by Gannett, and the News, which is owned by MediaNews Group, have already bought out dozens of workers over the past two years. Circulation at the papers has plummeted by double-digit percentages since 2003.

This next step is a drastic one, and it’s unclear whether it will work. After all, the internet has been one of the main culprits in the decline of American newspapers, who they have not yet figured out how to leverage new media advertising in an effective manner.

Forcing readers online to get the paper thus could turn out to be a foolish strategy.

Plus, one of the advantages of paid newspapers has always been home delivery, a fact the free Examiner chain has recognized and used to its great advantage, giving it the ability to sell a more upscale demographic to its advertisers. 

Too, some see the print retreat as a defeat that could alienate older readers, a key demographic for newspapers who are unlikely to go online or even to the local newsstand to get their daily read.

But others think Detroit will be just the first in a long line of newspapers to go partly or entirely online. Earlier this year, the Christian Science Monitor became the most prominent paper to say it would pull back from daily to weekly print editions and instead concentrate on the web.

A handful of smaller newspapers across the country, including the suburban Phoenix East Valley Tribune and Madison, Wis., Capital Times, have also cut back their daily print editions to focus on the web. 

The Detroit papers are already insisting that the print edition will not be entirely eliminated, and few of the anticipated job cuts from the move will affect editorial. Most will be made in production.

Details on the changes, including the impact on circulation and when the new plan will begin, will be filled in with tomorrow's announcement.