Washington Times cuts in staff, coverage cue new era

A day before President Obama's White House jobs summit, The Washington Times - the conservative alternative to The Washington Post, announced elimination of up to 40% of its staff. I hate to be critical in a difficult time, but I must offer my honest assessment: I believe that The Washington Times badly missed its opportunity to succeed in this Metro D.C. market. Years ago, they should have converted to a tabloid format (like the New York Post or New York Daily News) and distributed the newspaper free to metro train riders each day. In the 11 years I've been in D.C., I can count on one hand the number of people I've seen reading the Washington Times on the train or Metro buses. They did not do this and what happened? Another publisher came in and purchased a struggling chain of Northern Virginia weeklies and converted them into a daily, converted to an easy-to-read-on-the-train tabloid, handed it out free to Metro riders and hired every conservative columnist and editorial writer thay could find. Big national names, too like Michael Barone, Mark Tapscott and Byron York. The Washington Examiner fills that conservative void in this market. Oh, and they do a terrific job covering local county governments too. Examiner reporters actually go to county board meetings. Imagine that.