The Washington Post Expands A Section

Business Wire, March 13, 2009

Business, Economics Coverage Move to Most-Read Area of Newspaper

WASHINGTON -- The Washington Post today announced that beginning March 30, The Washington Post newspaper’s award-winning business coverage will shift into the main news package in the A Section Monday through Saturday.

“The move reflects the centrality of economic news, as well as the increasing overlap of political and economic events, in today’s world,” said Marcus Brauchli, Executive Editor, The Washington Post. “The expanded A Section will allow us to make better decisions about story position and length, and to run a leaner, better-organized newspaper.”

The new A Section will take readers through National and International news, then into the new Economic & Business section, a Washington Business page, the Fed Page, and the Editorial and Op-Ed pages.

The shift of business coverage into A will result in other changes. Rather than run a single section once a week on Washington Business, the newspaper will have a daily Washington Business page dedicated to local business issues.

The Post no longer will run full listings of daily stock-price movements Tuesday through Saturday, but will add a new daily half-page package of statistics and graphics that will show how major and local stocks fared, how world markets and commodities performed, and what is happening to key interest rates. Readers who want to find stock prices will be able to find comprehensive market data on washingtonpost.com.

The Post will enhance its Sunday Business section, by including not only full stock-price data from the week, but also new tables listing the schedule for major and local earnings releases, U.S. market performances over the past quarter, maps that depict the performance of global markets, a graphic of S&P 500 sectors performance changes, foreign-currency exchange rates and interest rates. Also on Sunday, The Post will include more personal-finance stories aimed at helping individuals and small businesses survive the economic downturn.

“These moves will allow us to continue providing the features that our readers tell us they most value in the newspaper,” added Brauchli. “We remain absolutely committed to the strongest, in-depth and authoritative coverage of business locally, economics and economic-policy nationally, and the hugely important intersection of government, politics and money.”

In addition, on March 30, The Washington Post Style section is shifting a handful of comics and games to the Web, where readership of such features is high. One of the two daily crossword puzzles that have been offered will end as a result of being discontinued by the syndicate. In addition, the television listings are being adjusted to reflect prime-time programming.

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