Washington Post axes national weekly edition

Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander, in an online blog entry, said the national weekly edition will cease publication at the end of the year.

The Post's national weekly edition was launched more than 25 years ago and contains news stories, features, book reviews, editorials, opinion columns and cartoons from the daily edition of the newspaper.

"Our subscriber base is literally dying off," national weekly edition editor Sharon Scott was quoted as saying.

She said the national weekly edition had managed to show a small profit the last two years but a loss and continued circulation declines were projected.

Post vice chairman Boisfeuillet Jones was quoted as saying that with the daily Post losing money, "the newspaper, at this stage, just can?t subsidize (the national weekly edition)."

Like other US newspapers, the Post has been grappling with a steep drop in print advertising revenue, steadily declining circulation and the migration of readers to free news online.

The Washington Post Co. posted a net profit in the second quarter of the year, but the newspaper division continues to lose money and contributed just 15 percent of revenue in the quarter.

The Post Co.'s second-quarter bottom line was boosted by growth at its Kaplan educational unit.

(c) 2009 AFP