 | ||
Newspapers
The Washington Post is the oldest and most-read daily newspaper in Washington, and it has developed into one of the most reputable daily newspapers in the U.S. It is most notable for exposing the Watergate scandal, among other achievements. The Washington Post Company has multiple media holdings, including a daily free newspaper called the Express, the Washington Post News Service with Bloomberg News, Fashion Washington, El Tiempo Latino (a Spanish-language publication), The Slate Group, The Daily Herald (in Washington state), as well as the education company Kaplan, Inc.. The Washington Post emphasizes national and political news coverage but also covers regional and local stories. Headquartered in downtown Washington, the newspaper employs journalists at 11 regional bureaus in Maryland and Virginia and 14 international bureaus. Content is shared across titles within the Washington Post Company, and the Express, in particular, often reprints content from the Associated Press, Getty Images, and other wire sources.
Contents
The daily Washington Times and the free weekly Washington City Paper also have substantial readership in the District. On February 1, 2005 the free daily tabloid Washington Examiner debuted, having been formed from a chain of suburban newspapers known as the Journal Newspapers. The Washington Examiner converted to a political journalism website and weekly magazine in June 2013.
The weekly Washington Blade and Metro Weekly focus on gay issues, and the Washington Sun, the Washington Informer, and Washington Afro on African American issues. Bi-weekly Street Sense focuses on issues of homelessness poverty, and life on the streets. Other special-interest papers include Roll Call, a daily paper focused on politics.
Many neighborhoods in the District have their own community newspapers. Some of these include The Current Newspapers, which has editions serving Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom, Georgetown, Chevy Chase and Upper Northwest, and a Capitol Hill paper called The Capitol Hill Current/Voice of the Hill. Additional papers include In-Towner (Dupont Circle, Logan Circle and Adams Morgan), Hill Rag (Capitol Hill), East of the River (Anacostia) and D.C. North (Northeast D.C.). In addition, several specialty newspapers serve the U.S. Congress; most notable are Roll Call, The Hill, The Washington Examiner, and Politico.
Television
As of 2008, the Washington Metropolitan Area was the 9th largest designated market area in the U.S., with 2,321,610 TV homes (2.028% of the U.S. population). The following is a list of television stations serving the metro area, with network owned-and-operated stations highlighted in bold:
Most Baltimore area television stations can be seen in the Washington region. Besides being viewed clearly in the District, they can especially be seen in the suburbs of the Interstate 95 corridor between both cities. They are: WMAR 2 (ABC), WBAL 11 (NBC), WJZ 13 (CBS), WMPT 22 / WMPB 67 (PBS/MPB), WUTB 24 (MyNetwork TV), WBFF 45 (FOX), and WNUV 54 (The CW).
A DC-MD-VA regional news station, NewsChannel 8, is carried on Channel 8 on all cable systems in Washington, D.C. and surrounding communities.
Public, educational, and government access (PEG) on cable tv is provided by the Public Access Corporation of the District of Columbia on two channels simulcast to both local cable TV systems. One channel is devoted to religious programming and the other channel provides a diversity of offerings. The District's two Public, educational, and government access (PEG) Channels are DCTV, a non-profit media outlet that provides training and production opportunities to local residents, and OCT TV-16, which provides information about government programs, services, and related opportunities.
Major national broadcasters and cable outlets including NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, and CNN maintain a significant presence in Washington, as do those from around the world including the BBC, CBC, and Al Jazeera. The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. Also, several cable television networks have their headquarters in the Washington area, including:
America's Most Wanted is the only network primetime program produced in Washington.
Radio
As of 2008, the Washington Metropolitan Area was the 9th largest radio market in the United States with a Metro 12+ Population of 4,238,100. The following is a list of radio stations serving the metro area:
FM
Radio CPR 97.5 FM is a popular pirate radio station that broadcasts in the area around Mount Pleasant, Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights in Washington. Additionally, most major radio stations from Baltimore, Maryland can be heard in the Washington metropolitan area. WINC 92.5 FM from Winchester, Virginia, can also be occasionally received in some sections of Northwest.
WOL 1450 AM, WKYS 93.9 FM, and WMMJ 102.3 are owned by Washington's Radio One, the largest African American media conglomerate in the country. It was founded by Cathy Hughes, a prominent figure in Washington radio since her days at Howard University's WHUR. Local news radio includes WAMU (88.5 FM), the largest publicly supported station, which broadcasts from American University and features programming from NPR and the BBC, as well as local shows like that of DC talk show host Kojo Nnamdi. WTOP is another all-news broadcast radio station serving the metro area, owned by Bonneville International Corporation.
NPR, XM Satellite Radio, and Voice of America, the U.S. government's international broadcasting service, are headquartered in Washington.
Internet media
Washington has over 60 online news outlets, in addition to websites run by the major print and broadcast media outlets. Washington ranks first out of the nation's largest designated market areas in household possession of a computer (82.9% of adults in the metro area) and Internet access (80% of adults online in the last 30 days). For news consumption, the city's major mainstream print and broadcast outlets command the most page views online, as well: WashingtonPost.com leads the pack with 10.6 million readers, an audience that extends beyond the metro region to include visitors from across the country. These mainstream outlets use their websites for various purposes. WashingtonPost.com, for example, features 107 blogs, including a section of the site called "All Opinions Are Local," which republishes selected content from area bloggers. Other types of partnerships include TV broadcaster WUSA's pairing with Metromix, an online entertainment guide that caters to a younger audience than those who tune into the station's news broadcasts.
Blogs—whether hyperlocal, citywide, or regional—also play a significant role in DC's media environment. The earliest blogs that remain active today began in 2003, and the most recent projects are still in progress. JDLand was the first hyperlocal blog to gain traction in Washington. Founded by Jacqueline Dupree in 2003, it covers developments in her neighborhood of Near Southeast and averages one to two posts per day. DCist, a member of the Gothamist blog network, has the largest readership of any local blog in DC, with 1.7 million page views per month. The blog averages 15–20 posts per day and contains a mix of commentary, reader submissions, original reporting, and republished news. It covers a variety of neighborhoods across the District. "Prince of Petworth" is another blog with a well-developed following; it was founded in 2006 and has since expanded from its focus on the Northwest DC neighborhood of Petworth to include 34 neighborhoods across the city. In Southeast Washington, the leading blog is "And Now, Anacostia," which commands approximately 5,000 page views per month. Sites which focus on the arts, like Brightest Young Things and Jukebox DC, have been an integral part of DC's vibrant and growing music, entertainment and cultural scenes.
A joint TV-online venture, TBD, launched in August 2010 under the ownership of Allbritton Communications, which also owns Politico and broadcasters WJLA and News Channel 8, now rebranded as TBD TV. General Manager Jim Brady founded TBD after leaving WashingtonPost.com, and founding editor Erik Wemple came by way of local alt-weekly The Washington City Paper. TBD covers the entire metro region and includes a section on its homepage for news personalized to a user's zip code. One of the site's main features is its "Community Network," which brings together the work of local bloggers.