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 JOA allowed both papers to maintain separate newsrooms while combining other parts of their businesses such as printing. Then it delayed the Sunday paper rollout a few days before USA Today’s takeover announcement. “Maintaining separate newsrooms to keep that up is probably the path for now.”Is a one-paper town inevitable?