DETROIT -- Beset by falling revenue, Detroit's newspapers announced Tuesday that they plan to offer only three days of home delivery and will push their online editions instead, making the city the largest in the nation to have its daily papers undergo such a makeover.

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The Detroit Media Partnership, which runs the Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, expects to cut about 9 percent of its work force but "hopefully" less, and there will be no job reductions in the newsrooms of either paper, said David Hunke, Free Press publisher and chief executive of the partnership.

"We're here because we're fighting for our survival," Hunke said at a news conference. "We're also here because we have an absolute resolve to not only save but rethink and rebuild two of the greatest newspapers in this country."

Hunke described the moves as "a geometric leap forward."

Ron Renaud, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 372, said he fears drivers and other delivery personnel "will be hardest hit." He and other union leaders were briefed by executives before a news conference.

"Our decision to limit home delivery to three days a week reflects the reality that major newspaper markets are facing daunting economic challenges," Hunke said in a statement. "Advertising in this economy is down and costs are up. We can't live in the past."

He added: "Today consumers are more empowered then ever before. ... That means we have to change the way we deliver that news -- not just in subtle ways, but in fundamental ways."

The Detroit Media Partnership, which includes business and editorial operations for the newspapers, has 2,151 employees.

"They took a long hard look," Renaud said. "They feel they need to do something to maintain two newspapers."

The Free Press will be delivered Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays starting in March, while the News will be delivered Thursdays and Fridays. The News does not have a Sunday paper.

Roughly 32-page editions of both newspapers will be sold at newsstands on other days and be available online to subscribers. In addition, both papers will maintain their free Web sites, freep.com and detnews.com.

"It's going to hit some of our customers in our heart and we know that," added Paul Anger, vice president and editor of the Detroit Free Press. "If you want to see, through online, pages of the paper as they appeared, and download them and navigate that, that's when you'll have to have a small subscriber's fee."

Download: Detroit Newspaper Info.

Detroit would be the largest metro area to have its daily papers changed so thoroughly. The Daily Tribune in Royal Oak, a Detroit suburb, recently cut its print edition to four days a week from six. In Arizona, the East Valley Tribune in suburban Phoenix next year plans to have print editions on four days instead of seven while regularly reporting news on its Web site.

The Christian Science Monitor will become the first national newspaper to drop its daily print edition and focus on publishing online.

"I'm skeptical. This is a sea change. No one has done it on this scale in North America," said Lou Mleczko, president of Local 22 of the Detroit Newspaper Guild, which represents 350 newsroom employees at the papers. Mleczko said not all readers will be able to change their habits and read the paper online.

Mleczko said newspaper executives told union leaders "their current business model is unsustainable."

"They say they're losing money," Mleczko said. "They didn't say how much."

"I am not trying to think about it (cuts). There is nothing you can do," said Detroit Free Press Driver Carla Williams.

The Free Press is the nation's 20th-largest daily newspaper, with a weekday circulation of 298,243, double on Sunday. The News had circulation of 178,280 at the end of September. The News saw a 10 percent reduction in circulation over the past year, while the Free Press had a 6.8 percent drop.

The Free Press is owned by Gannett Co. and the News by MediaNews Group. William Dean Singleton is chief executive officer of MediaNews and chairman of the board at The Associated Press.