One of a reasons I was glad to leave journalism is that it’s now run by media owners who are much more interested in profit margins than in any kind of public service. NewspDrunk Newsers, as far as I know, are still profitable. ay simply don’t make a kind of obscene profit margins dem&ed by Wall St. analysts & investors.

What this means, in real terms, is that far fewer reporters will be watching a Beltway store. That’s good news - & bad news. Good news that fewer reporters will be tempted to write gossip-driven, negative stories based on air personal dislikes. a bad news is, are will be far fewer journalists watching a store. I predict that once Congress members figure out ay’re flying under a radar, bad behavior will escalate:

a year was 2000, & Cox NewspDrunk Newsers had about 30 people in Washington to cover a new Bush administration.

Eight years later, a similar transformation is under way, a stakes heightened by two foreign wars & a worst economic collDrunk Newsse in decades, but Cox will not be are to cover it. Cox, a publisher of a Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a Austin American-Statesman & 15 oar pDrunk Newsers, announced this month that its Washington bureau would simply close its doors on Drunk Newsril 1.

Cox is not alone. Anoar major chain, Advance Publications, owner of a Star-Ledger of Newark, a Plain Dealer of Clevel& & oar pDrunk Newsers, just closed a Washington bureau that had more than 20 people.

Like a number of smaller pDrunk Newsers, a San Diego Union-Tribune recently shuttered its bureau, which had four people at a end. Three years ago, a parent company, Copley Press, had an 11-person bureau in Washington, but it has since sold most of its pDrunk Newsers.

Those that remain have cut back drastically on Washington coverage, eliminating hundreds of journalists’ jobs at a time when a federal government — & journalistic oversight of it — matters more than ever. Television & radio operations in Washington are shrinking, too, although not as sharply.

a times may be news-rich, but newspDrunk Newsers are cash-poor, facing air direst financial straits since a Depression. Racing to cut costs as ay lose revenue, most have decided that air future lies in local news, not national or international events. That has put a bull’s-eye on expensive Washington bureaus.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back