The Washington Post’s daily commuter newspaper — The Express — will cease publication this week amid financial loses, the paper announced Wednesday.
The free 16-year-old newspaper, largely read by Washington, DC’s Metro area, once boasted a distribution of roughly 190,000 per day back in 2007, according to Express editor Dan Caccavaro. Today, the paper is reportedly read by 130,000.
In his Wednesday column, Caccavaro blamed the paper’s drop in readership due to the availability of news on commuter’s smartphones thanks to the installation of Wifi on the Metro’s trains.
“This Monday morning, as I rode the train to work… three people on my crowded Blue Line train were reading Express (thank you!),” wrote the editor. “One man had his nose in an old-fashioned book. Almost everyone else was staring at a phone.”
The newspaper is laying off all 20 of its reporters due to the closure and will run its final edition on Thursday.
The Post will offer Express readers a free 60-day trial for digital access to the paper.
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