To my knowledge there are done by chronological order and you search the film by the page. ie get the year, month day and pull that film and take it to a reader and browse it. ;) slow but...
Are any of the newspapers available for online searching? If so, how do we gain access, i.e., Genealogy.com, Newspapers.com, free sites, membership sites, etc.?
Genealogybank.com has a few Michigan newspapers for Detroit, Grand Rapids, Jackson, Kalamazoo, Ontonagon and St. James. It is a pay site. There are monthly and annual fees.
Micki are you looking for a specific area or time period? Some libraries and genealogical societies have local papers online, or have indexes online where they can be obtained. If you give us a better idea what you need we may be able to give a more specific answer for online sources.