Philip Anschutz, whose media holdings include the San Francisco Examiner (which we Bay Area folk remember as once a full-fledged newspaper, now a free, weekday tabloid), will launch a Washington, D.C., version on Feb. 1. It will be available in newsboxes in the area, and home delivery will be targeted to high-income neighborhoods. The Washingtonian reports:
The new venture’s success will depend in part on whether it can take the model of a free newspaper and make it a serious journalistic endeavor. Most free papers, including the Washington Post‘s Express tabloid and the Metro papers in Boston and Philadelphia, simply combine recycled wire copy, shortened news stories, and shopping and entertainment guides. Then they wrap advertising around the copy. The Washington Examiner will have a staff of 16 local reporters and veteran editors, including longtime newspaperman Nicholas Horrock, who has the Washington Post in his sights.
“I think the Post has a great franchise,” says Horrock, who will be the Examiner‘s managing editor. “But there’s room for a quick, well-edited newspaper. They will have to share.”
This’ll be an interesting story to follow. (Via newsdesigner.com.)
Related: “A Low Profile and a Large Footprint,” Washington Post (Nov. 21, 2004).
One reply on “New paper in town”
Have you seen the ads for the new “Washington Examiner”? They’re all over the radio, and I’ve seen some on TV, too. They’re pushing sports more than anything else, which is an intriguing tactic.
The Washingtonian may believe that the Post Express is “recycled wire copy, shortened news stories, and shopping and entertainment guides. Then they wrap advertising around the copy.” I beg to differ. It’s just the other way around!
I’d be happy to get ANY semblance of a hometown newspaper. The Washington Post badly wants to recapture its faded glory as a “national” newspaper. In the meantime, its coverage of Washington the city is about as bad as a Gannett rag-sheet.