I’m not really sure how I feel about the ongoing implosion of The Washington Times. On one hand, I lament that perhaps the most popular right-leaning newspaper in that nation is pretty much going to disappear. As well, I will sorely miss the Times’ sports coverage. Corey Masisak’s Capitals coverage, in particular, is very good and the team of Thom Loverro and Ryan O’Halloran do as good a job with the Redskins as any tandem in the NFL. With that section gone, I don’t have about half the reason to follow the paper as I did before. It also doesn’t help that TWT routinely clutters my RSS reader with wire service articles from the Associated Press.
As to what’s caused the collapse, I can only refer you to the Howard Kurtz link above and this post from Stacy McCain. I don’t have any better ideas, except for two. First, I think the Times is suffering the same problems as the Washington Post beyond those plaguing the rest of the dead-tree media. The old business models for newspapers is changing and the medium is lagging behind those changes pretty badly but both Washington papers have an additional problem in that they are largely seen as national newspapers. I imagine that it’s more difficult to pull in local advertising when you’re not catering to a local audience. It might be nice for a local business to get its name out to the big movers and shakers on Capitol Hill, but, really, how much business is that likely to bring in?
Washington, DC could really use a solid city newspaper, one that covers local issues and the local government. TWT isn’t headed in that direction and neither is the Post. That’s a shame, I think.
UPDATE: Stacy has a longer post with a lot of wisdom and a little more background information. The info at the end about Tucker Carlson’s site delays is worth the price of admission.
Tags: Journalism, Washington Times
You know, Jimmie, I tendered my resignation in January 2008, two days after they hired the Washington Post’s John Solomon to replace Wes Pruden as editor. Right after Solomon’s hiring was announced, one of my newsroom colleagues said to me, “If I had wanted to work for a Postie, I would have applied at the %$#&ing Post!”
Exactly — but that colleague didn’t quit. I did. And mine was the smart move. I got out before things went to hell, which has given me a two-year head start on establishing an independent career online, while most of my former colleagues who haven’t already gotten kicked to the curb soon will be.
I wonder how many of those colleagues have the gumption and journalistic chops to be an independent operator.
More importantly, how many would think that doing such a thing is beneath them?