Today I bought the Sunday Virginia edition of The Washington Post (the picture is of the District edition).
I paid $1.50 (the Sunday national edition of The New York Times was $5)
What did I get?
16 broadsheet news and advertising sections plus the tabloid Book World, The Washington Post Magazine and Parade.
How many pages in total?
Let’s see:
A Section (News): 22 pages
B Section (Outlook): 8 pages
C Section (Metro): 12 pages
D Section (Style): 8 pages
E Section (Sports): 14 pages
F Section (Business) : 10 pages
G Section (Car Pages): 8 pages
H Section (Classified): 8 pages
H/J Section (Classified): 12 pages
K Section (Jobs): 20 pages
L Section (Comics): 6 + 6, 12 pages
M Section (Sunday Source): 8 pages
N Section (Arts): 10 pages
P Section (Travel): 10 pages
An advertising supplement (Auto Show): 12 pages
Book World: 16 pages
The Washington Post Magazine: 34 pages
Parade: 16 pages
Plus 6 advertising inserts (Target, Ritz Camera, Direct TV and 2 coupon booklets): 98 pages
Grand total: 312 pages (154 in editorial sections and 158 in advertising sections)
A great package for a great price, and it’s January (the low season).
But, let’s check some of the content:
In the Metro section there are three full pages of obituaries and death notices about people mainly from Washington D.C. and surrounding areas and I am four hours from there.
A waste of money and paper, and inefficient for ads.
The 12 pages about the auto show in the Washington area don’t make any sense for me here in Norfolk, where this weekend we have the Hampton Roads auto show.
Again, a waste of money and paper, and inefficient ads.
The Washington Post Magazine has pages of furniture ads from Washington-area stores.
More waste of money and paper, and inefficient ads.
The Arts section includes four full pages of local movie theater showtime listings not very useful for me because I am not going to make an eight hour round-trip drive to watch a movie.
Sorry, more waste of money and paper, and inefficient ads.
I can say the same about all these jobs, real state and car classifieds sections …
So …
Can you tell me how and why all this crazy business is running at The Washington Post?
Can you explain me the logic and rationale behind this madness?
Do you think that readers and advertisers are stupid?
When you see all this nonsense, you can understand why these multi-section, multi-edition newspapers are in crisis and losing readers and advertisers.
And why personalized online ads are eating their business.
Until they go… out of business.