US: Washington Post radio gets cut

Posted by Jean Yves Chainon on August 28, 2007 at 3:40 PM

As newspapers gradually turn into media companies and venture into non-print platforms, some simply don’t last. As is the case with the Washington Post’s 17-month-old radio experiment, which will be shuttered next month due to insufficient financial results.

Post Radio didn’t even succeed in drawing one percent of listeners during its first year. The relative growth in audience in recent months wasn’t enough to convince owners to sustain the project.

Bonneville International Corp., owner of the radio station, initially had a three-year agreement with the newspaper. The radio station will continue to broadcast after September, but without being associated to the Post.

Post Radio’s program featured discussions with Post editors and reporters about daily news. The Washington Post hadn’t invested in the radio stations: Bonneville paid an annual fee to the paper to use the Post’s name and have access to its journalists.

"It has been a good experiment during which we learned about radio as one of the platforms on which we can put Washington Post journalists and journalism," said Leonard Downie, The Post's executive editor.

At a time when transformation and adaptation is essential for newspapers, radio platforms could be a worthwhile option. In this case it wasn’t.

Source: Washington Post through I Want Media