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‘Washington Post’ Closes Remaining U.S. Bureaus

The Washington Post is closing its remaining U.S. bureaus, in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago; the paper’s executive editor, Marcus Brauchli, says the Post can “effectively cover the rest of the country from Washington.”

While there are unquestionably advantages to having someone “on the ground at times,” the paper is “not a national news organization of record serving a general audience. Nor are we a wire service or cable channel,” Brauchli is quoted as saying in the Washington Post.

The Post is cutting costs following a loss of $166.7 million in the first three quarters of this year.

Newspapers have been facing nearly insurmountable challenges in recent years, including falling circulations and plummeting ad revenue. Total newspaper advertising revenue slumped another 28% in the third quarter compared to the same quarter in 2008, from $10.1 billion to about $6.4 billion. The loss in Q3 was only slightly better than that in the first quarter of 28.3% and in the second quarter of 29%.

Weekday newspaper circulation fell 10.6% in the first half of the year. The Washington Post, the country’s fifth largest paper, has a daily circulation of 582,844, down 6.4% for the same period.