There’s an old-school newspaper war brewing in DC — and we all stand to benefit

By Brian Stelter, CNN

(CNN) — Most days there are only two kinds of news about newspapers: Bad and worse.

But in Washington, DC, there’s something unexpected happening: A new-age version of an old-school newspaper war, with feisty competition between two formidable newsrooms, the entrenched Washington Post and the upstart Washington Sun.

This being 2026, these “newspapers” are entirely digital, in the Sun’s case, and mostly digital, in the Post’s case. But they’re clearly and boldly competing with one another in a way that evokes rival tabloid paper fights from decades past.

With one publication out to defend its turf, and another out to prove itself, readers are the ultimate beneficiaries.

On Wednesday the Jeff Bezos-owned Post announced some promising subscription growth figures after several years of painful losses and cutbacks. “The Post is on track to break even, ending 2026 on its closest path to profitability in five years,” a spokesperson said.

Bezos also promoted Jeff D’Onofrio, who’s been acting publisher and CEO since February, to those roles permanently.

The Post’s timing probably wasn’t a coincidence. Earlier on Wednesday the Sun introduced itself to online readers after deciding to drop its original name, NOTUS, short for News of the United States, amid a rapid expansion effort in DC.

“Washington journalism is in a moment of generational change. We’re rising to meet it,” Sun editor Tim Grieve wrote.

Earlier this year NOTUS went on a hiring spree when the Post laid off hundreds of employees, about a third of its staff.

More broadly, NOTUS owner Robert Allbritton, who previously founded Politico, has described the Post’s business model struggles as an opportunity for others. The Atlantic and The New York Times have also hired many Post alums.

But NOTUS, now the Sun, is replicating specific parts of the Post, like weather coverage. The Post was home to the Capital Weather Gang brand for years; now the Sun will carry the brand’s weather forecasts.

The Washington Sun (not to be confused with the Baltimore Sun up the road) says it also wants to stand out with local sports coverage, an area that the Post effectively ceded after shuttering the desk earlier this year.

Sun political columnist Dana Milbank, who worked at the Post for 26 years, wrote that “much of that time was a period of managed decline, shrinking budgets, shuttered bureaus, reduced coverage and round after round of buyouts and layoffs.”

And, of course, the Post’s story is far from unique. Milbank wrote that newspaper industry job losses “are comparable to the employment losses in the steel industry during its collapse from the 1970s to the 1990s.”

So it’s meaningful, he wrote in a Wednesday column, that Allbritton and Grieve have “ambitions to rebuild.”

Rebuild without the cost structure that has caused so many newspapers to go out of print and become shells of their former selves.

The Post is still larger and healthier than most; it has roughly 500 newsroom staffers even after all the layoffs, while the Sun has about 110.

But the Sun will try to punch above its weight in certain areas and essentially make DC a two-newspaper town again, the way it was until the Washington Star shut down in 1981. And the Post will point to all the exclusives and investigations that it continues to churn out, as well as its partial recovery from the self-inflicted wounds of recent years.

D’Onofrio, who abruptly took over for widely criticized publisher Will Lewis, wrote in a Wednesday memo that “The Washington Post will celebrate its 150th anniversary next year. It is our collective responsibility to ensure that we position it for the next 150 years, and I will be working with all of you to do just that.”

He also hinted at some expansion plans, stating that “News and Opinions are at our gravitational center, and our mission doesn’t change. What will change is that we will build a modern media company with new revenue streams that move us from breakeven to profitability, so we can reinvest in our journalism.”

A spokesperson for the Post indicated that the break-even point is within sight, without sharing details. The publication also said it has sold “more than 300,000 individual subscriptions year to date.”

The Sun intends to start a subscription model later this month, while some content will remain free.

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