Speaking of the Examiner

Don't you like their new design? I do. Clearly, it's modeled after other free dailies like the Metro papers distributed in NYC and other places.

Now if we could get the newspaper to improve the people they have as local columnists.

Still, I won't talk about the editorial page... but they do run letters.

It's important to have another editorial voice in the city, especially as the Washington Times has drastically reduced its coverage of local issues, turning to wire services (Associated Press) and reprinting stories from regional newspapers outside of Washington for the bulk of their "local" coverage.

At the same time, the Express has repositioned its website to focus on entertainment only. It used to have good blogging coverage on local issues. I thought that was necessary since the Express has little in the way of original content on local issues, and no real columnists of import on local issues. Because the Express is distributed more widely this is an issue.

But the papers are truly positioned differently. The Express is about reaching a younger demographic presumed not to read newspapers, while the Examiner is trying to meet some of the traditional functions that we have grown up to associate with a _local_ newspaper.