Washington Post-published commuter paper closes

Express, the free newspaper published weekdays by The Washington Post for Metro riders and other commuters, shut down last week. The paper has been publishing for 16 years.

Managers of the paper cited its declining finances as the reason it will quit, The Washington Post reported. The printed paper had recently started losing money, the Post said.

Express was meant to be an easy read for public-transit commuters each morning, particularly non-subscribers to the Post. The paper was given out free each morning via old-fashioned newspaper hawkers at Metro stations and through newspaper boxes.

Twenty journalists will be laid off due to the shutdown, the Post reported.

At its high point in 2007, the paper went to some 190,000 people daily, said Dan Caccavaro, its executive editor.  But its circulation has fallen in recent years, to some 130,000 copies a day. The drop was caused partly by declining Metro ridership, Caccavaro told the Post.

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