There’s an old-school newspaper war brewing in DC — and we all stand to benefit

Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images

Most days there are only two kinds of news about newspapers: Bad and worse.

But in Washington, DC, there’s something unexpected happening: A new-age version of an old-school newspaper war, with feisty competition between two formidable newsrooms, the entrenched Washington Post and the upstart Washington Sun.

This being 2026, these “newspapers” are entirely digital, in the Sun’s case, and mostly digital, in the Post’s case. But they’re clearly and boldly competing with one another in a way that evokes rival tabloid paper fights from decades past.

With one publication out to defend its turf, and another out to prove itself, readers are the ultimate beneficiaries.

On Wednesday the Jeff Bezos-owned Post announced some promising subscription growth figures after several years of painful losses and cutbacks. “The Post is on track to break even, ending 2026 on its closest path to profitability in five years,” a spokesperson said.

Bezos also promoted Jeff D’Onofrio, who’s been acting publisher and CEO since February, to those roles permanently.

Tom Brenner/For The Washington Post/Getty Images

The Post’s timing probably wasn’t a coincidence. Earlier on Wednesday the Sun introduced itself to online readers after deciding to drop its original name, NOTUS, short for News of the United States, amid a rapid expansion effort in DC.

“Washington journalism is in a moment of generational change. We’re rising to meet it,” Sun editor Tim Grieve wrote.

Earlier this year NOTUS went on a hiring spree when the Post laid off hundreds of employees, about a third of its staff.

More broadly, NOTUS owner Robert Allbritton, who previously founded Politico, has described the Post’s business model struggles as an opportunity for others. The Atlantic and The New York Times have also hired many Post alums.

But NOTUS, now the Sun, is replicating specific parts of the Post, like weather coverage. The Post was home to the Capital Weather Gang brand for years; now the Sun will carry the brand’s weather forecasts.

The Washington Sun (not to be confused with the Baltimore Sun up the road) says it also wants to stand out with local sports coverage, an area that the Post effectively ceded after shuttering the desk earlier this year.

Sun political columnist Dana Milbank, who worked at the Post for 26 years, wrote that “much of that time was a period of managed decline, shrinking budgets, shuttered bureaus, reduced coverage and round after round of buyouts and layoffs.”

And, of course, the Post’s story is far from unique. Milbank wrote that newspaper industry job losses “are comparable to the employment losses in the steel industry during its collapse from the 1970s to the 1990s.”

J. Scott Applewhite/AP

So it’s meaningful, he wrote in a Wednesday column, that Allbritton and Grieve have “ambitions to rebuild.”

Rebuild without the cost structure that has caused so many newspapers to go out of print and become shells of their former selves.

The Post is still larger and healthier than most; it has roughly 500 newsroom staffers even after all the layoffs, while the Sun has about 110.

But the Sun will try to punch above its weight in certain areas and essentially make DC a two-newspaper town again, the way it was until the Washington Star shut down in 1981. And the Post will point to all the exclusives and investigations that it continues to churn out, as well as its partial recovery from the self-inflicted wounds of recent years.

D’Onofrio, who abruptly took over for widely criticized publisher Will Lewis, wrote in a Wednesday memo that “The Washington Post will celebrate its 150th anniversary next year. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that we position it for the next 150 years, and I will be working with all of you to do just that.”

He also hinted at some expansion plans, stating that “News and Opinions are at our gravitational center, and our mission doesn’t change. What will change is that we will build a modern media company with new revenue streams that move us from breakeven to profitability, so we can reinvest in our journalism.”

A spokesperson for the Post indicated that the break-even point is within sight, without sharing details. The publication also said it has sold “more than 300,000 individual subscriptions year to date.”

The Sun intends to start a subscription model later this month, while some content will remain free.

格雷姆·斯隆/彭博社/盖蒂图片社

大多数时候，报纸上的新闻只有两种：坏消息和更糟糕的消息。

但在华盛顿特区，却发生了一件意想不到的事情：一场新时代的报业大战正在上演，两家实力雄厚的报业巨头——根深蒂固的《华盛顿邮报》和新兴的《华盛顿太阳报》——展开了激烈的竞争。

如今已是2026年，这些“报纸”要么完全数字化（如《太阳报》），要么大部分数字化（如《邮报》）。但它们之间明目张胆的竞争，让人不禁想起几十年前小报之间的激烈竞争。

一家媒体力图捍卫自己的阵地，另一家媒体则力图证明自己，最终受益的却是读者。

周三，杰夫·贝佐斯旗下的《华盛顿邮报》公布了一些令人鼓舞的订阅增长数据，此前该报经历了数年的亏损和裁员。“《华盛顿邮报》有望实现收支平衡，并在2026年底迎来五年来最接近盈利的时期，”一位发言人表示。

贝佐斯还将自 2 月份以来一直担任代理出版人和首席执行官的杰夫·德奥诺弗里奥正式提拔为这两个职位。

汤姆·布伦纳/《华盛顿邮报》/盖蒂图片社

《华盛顿邮报》选择这个时间点或许并非巧合。就在周三早些时候，《太阳报》在华盛顿特区迅速扩张之际，决定放弃原名“NOTUS”（全称“美国新闻社”），并向其在线读者介绍了新名称。

《太阳报》编辑蒂姆·格里夫写道：“华盛顿新闻界正处于代际变革时期。我们正在积极应对这一变革。”

今年早些时候，《华盛顿邮报》裁员数百人，约占其员工总数的三分之一，而 NOTUS 则大举招聘。

更广泛地说，NOTUS 的所有者罗伯特·奥尔布里顿（他曾创办 Politico）认为，《华盛顿邮报》的商业模式困境对其他媒体来说是一个机遇。《大西洋月刊》和《纽约时报》也聘用了许多《华盛顿邮报》的前员工。

但NOTUS（现已更名为《太阳报》）正在复制《邮报》的某些部分，例如天气预报。《邮报》多年来一直是“首都天气帮”（Capital Weather Gang）品牌的所在地；现在，《太阳报》将刊登该品牌的天气预报。

《华盛顿太阳报》（不要与附近的《巴尔的摩太阳报》混淆）表示，它也希望凭借本地体育报道脱颖而出，而《华盛顿邮报》在今年早些时候关闭体育版后，实际上放弃了这一领域。

曾在《华盛顿邮报》工作 26 年的《太阳报》政治专栏作家达纳·米尔班克写道：“那段时间大部分时间都是有管理的衰落时期，预算缩减，分社关闭，报道减少，一轮又一轮的买断和裁员。”

当然，《华盛顿邮报》的遭遇并非个例。米尔班克写道，报业的失业人数“与上世纪70年代至90年代钢铁行业崩溃期间的失业人数相当”。

J. Scott Applewhite/美联社

他在周三的专栏文章中写道，因此，奥尔布里顿和格里夫有“重建的雄心壮志”是有意义的。

重建报纸时，要摒弃导致众多报纸停刊、沦为昔日辉煌空壳的成本结构。

《华盛顿邮报》的规模和运营状况仍然比大多数报纸要好；即使在裁员之后，它仍然有大约 500 名新闻编辑室员工，而《太阳报》只有大约 110 名员工。

但《太阳报》会在某些领域力图超越自身规模，基本上让华盛顿特区再次成为两家报纸的城市，就像1981年《华盛顿星报》停刊之前那样。《邮报》则会强调其持续推出的独家报道和调查，以及近年来自身造成的损失已部分恢复。

德奥诺弗里奥突然接替了备受批评的出版人威尔·刘易斯，他在周三的一份备忘录中写道：“《华盛顿邮报》明年将庆祝创刊150周年。确保它为下一个150年做好准备是我们共同的责任，我将与大家一起努力实现这一目标。”

他还暗示了一些扩张计划，并表示：“新闻和观点是我们的核心，我们的使命不会改变。改变的是，我们将打造一家拥有新收入来源的现代化媒体公司，使我们从收支平衡走向盈利，这样我们就可以对新闻事业进行再投资。”

《华盛顿邮报》发言人表示，盈亏平衡点指日可待，但未透露具体细节。该报还称，今年迄今为止已售出“超过30万份个人订阅”。

《太阳报》计划于本月晚些时候推出订阅模式，但部分内容仍将免费。