The Washington Examiner has announced that they’re reworking their editorial page after the loss of Nate Beeler who took a job with the Columbus Dispatch.
Their revamp includes not only NOT filling Nate’s position, but removing all cartoons and comics from the editorial page.
Starting today, the Washington Examiner has a new weapon in its ongoing tabloid war with Express: a less-stodgy second page.
Gone are the syndicated cartoons and editorials, both of which have been moved deep inside the paper. They’ve been replaced with three new features: “Talking Points”, which editor Stephen G. Smith says works like a survival guide for current events (today’s explains what the Commerce Clause is); an event feature called “Spotlight”; and an overheard-like feature called “Potomac Diary.”
The announcement go on to say, they’ve dropped all syndicated comics because “syndicated cartoonists failed to propel readers into the rest of the paper like Beeler.”
Clarification: The original headline was misleading. It read, “Washington Examiner won’t replace Nate Beeler; removes all cartoons”. I’m told that this revamp doesn’t mean a new cartoonist won’t be hired, and it implied that ALL cartoons were removed from the paper, which is not the case. My apologies for any confusion.
Correction: Thanks to Nate himself, I have some better insight into the Examiner’s changes. Page 2 – where Nate’s work used to appear – WAS the house editorial page. The opinion/commentary pages ran further into the paper. This announcement is about moving the editorial page back inside the paper next to the opinion/commentary page. Page 2 is now it’s own animal with the features quoted above. The editorial page still runs syndicated material.
As far as Nate’s position, it is still unfilled. No decision has been made whether they plan to fill it or not.
At least you still have Washington Post and Washington Times.
The Washington Examiner is taking a chance. This could infuriate both their readers.
The Examiner is a throwaway. Not a big DC player in reality.