The Washington City Paper newspaper is ending its print edition after 41 years. The paper lives on via a member-supported WordPress site now.
The City Paper team published a long and beautifully-written article about the transition from print to digital:
From a technical standpoint, my generation of City People has a significantly easier time producing print issues than our predecessors did, assembling our issues with trackpads and keyboard commands while they used knives and paste. In the paper’s nascent days, when it was still produced in Baltimore, the staff sent pages and materials back and forth on a massive fax machine. That was an improvement, former publisher Amy Austin says, over the previous method: On Monday nights, she used to deliver the necessary files to the Greyhound bus station, where they would be ferried north.
The City Paper website runs on Newspack from Automattic. They take memberships via FundJournalism.org. Here’s their pitch to subscribers:
Washington City Paper is your source for local news. Since 1981, our journalism and events have connected D.C. natives and newcomers to the District and to each other. With the support of our members, we’re exploring the city we all love—investigating corruption and exposing wrongdoing, analyzing the District’s biggest issues, holding elected officials accountable, and at the same time shining a light on our rich food, arts, and sports scenes with award-winning design and photography.
