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WaPo to ‘Shrink Newsroom,’ Increase Readership

Washington Post executive editor Leonard Downie Jr. plans to shrink the newsroom, tighten up the paper’s news hole, crack down on story length, and implement other initiatives that he hopes will build readership of both the printed paper and the website while reducing newsroom costs.

In a memo to staffers yesterday, Downie announced both general and specific changes such as moving reporters and editors within and among staffs in order to counteract circulation declines, writes Editor & Publisher, which reprints the entire memo.

Downie’s initiatives are not just about cutting costs, he wrote in the memo. “We believe that everything we are doing will make the newspaper stronger and increase readership of the printed paper and washingtonpost.com,” he wrote.

In the memo, Downie said the changes he is making remind him of his early days in the newsroom when Ben Bradlee began “boldly transforming the paper during the 1960s and 1970s.”

Bradlee himself supports the moves that Downie is making, but disagrees with the comparison, saying that the issues facing the newspaper industry today are greater than those he faced.

The Washington Post changes are yet another in a long string of similar announcements about major shakeups in newspapers across the country.