The incredible shrinking Times
Washington Times, that is...in an effort to stanch the money bleeding from pretty much every part of Washington's conservative newspaper, the Times cut its sports section and 40% of the newsroom staff on New Year's Eve following a decision to drop the Sunday edition and charge extra for home delivery.
I don't see that this is going to help them much. The main problem with the Times was that it was never taken seriously by Washingtonians as an alternative to the Washington Post, and with the entrance of the free Examiner, it was pretty much doomed as a traditional paper. I don't see the decision to concentrate on national/international news to be a good thing, really; if they were going to do something like that, the logical thing to do would be to revive Insight magazine and position it as the conservative counterpoint to the Post's Newsweek, but in an age where most conservatives are getting their news and information from talk radio, cable TV, and the blogosphere, I don't know that that would have worked either. Guess we'll see how that works out for them.
I didn't blog about this last week as part of my general lack of enthusiasm for political blogging of late. Hard to worry about the nation's problems when your own house is on fire, so to speak, but as part of my rounds through the local baseball blogs, it was hard not to notice all the posts and comments noting the demise of the Times' sports section. The Times had always devoted more assets to the Nationals than the Post, when you'd think the reverse would be true, and that extra coverage will be missed.
I don't see that this is going to help them much. The main problem with the Times was that it was never taken seriously by Washingtonians as an alternative to the Washington Post, and with the entrance of the free Examiner, it was pretty much doomed as a traditional paper. I don't see the decision to concentrate on national/international news to be a good thing, really; if they were going to do something like that, the logical thing to do would be to revive Insight magazine and position it as the conservative counterpoint to the Post's Newsweek, but in an age where most conservatives are getting their news and information from talk radio, cable TV, and the blogosphere, I don't know that that would have worked either. Guess we'll see how that works out for them.
I didn't blog about this last week as part of my general lack of enthusiasm for political blogging of late. Hard to worry about the nation's problems when your own house is on fire, so to speak, but as part of my rounds through the local baseball blogs, it was hard not to notice all the posts and comments noting the demise of the Times' sports section. The Times had always devoted more assets to the Nationals than the Post, when you'd think the reverse would be true, and that extra coverage will be missed.