Layoffs Rock Washington Examiner; Weekly Magazine & Website in the Offing

 (Photo credit: quinn.anya)

The free, right-wing daily Washington Examiner newspaper will morph into a weekly magazine and a Website in June, but will do so with 87 fewer employees, the paper's owner, Denver-based Clarity Media Group, Inc. ("CMG") announced this week.

According to accounts in the Baltimore Business Journal and Washington City Paper, the Examiner, which is published in Springfield, Virginia, and circulated throughout the greater Washington, D.C. area, will shift its focus to political news and drop local news coverage.  The pink-slipped staffers from the editorial, advertising and business departments, will continue to work at the Examiner through its last print edition on June 14, a few days before the weekly magazine and daily Web site versions debut.

Management, including editor Stephen G. Smith, executive editor Mark Tapscott and digital managing editor Jennifer Peebles will stay on after the transformation, according to the Baltimore Business Journal article. The target audience for the revamped Examiner includes government employees and professionals from academia, politics and public affairs.

The nine-year-old CMG is owned by Philip Anschutz, and includes the Neo-Conservative "Bible" Weekly Standard magazine in its stable. Another of its publications, The Baltimore Examiner, shut down four years ago after a two-year run.