The Washington Sun officially launched Wednesday with a 110-person newsroom that includes at least 28 former Washington Post journalists, as the outlet formerly known as NOTUS expands into local news, sports, food and weather.
The publication has more than doubled its staff in the past six months, editor-in-chief Tim Grieve said in a launch announcement Wednesday. Its newsroom now has 110 employees, up from 45 at the beginning of the year, according to The New York Times.
“At least 28 of us are former Posties,” longtime Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank, who joined the outlet earlier this year, wrote in a column announcing the launch Wednesday.
Other former Post journalists who have joined the Sun include congressional reporters Paul Kane and Kadia Goba, economics reporter Jeff Stein, restaurant critic Tom Sietsema and sports journalists Thomas Boswell and Dave Sheinin.
The Sun has also entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Capital Weather, the forecasting operation formerly known as the Post’s Capital Weather Gang, which will provide daily weather forecasts for the publication.
The expansion comes after the Washington Post slashed its newsroom in a sweeping “strategic reset” in February, scaling back international coverage, restructuring its metro desk and ending its sports section in its previous form. More than 300 journalists lost their jobs.
Grieve told the Times that the Post’s pullback created an opening for expanded local and sports coverage.
“I think people are really hungry particularly for the local and sports coverage that has faded away with what’s happened at The Post and with local newspapers around the country,” Grieve said.
The publication is backed by Politico co-founder Robert Allbritton, who launched NOTUS through the nonprofit Allbritton Journalism Institute. The outlet announced plans in April to rebrand as “The Star” as part of its expansion into local and sports coverage.
Those plans were halted after media executive Dovid Efune, who is reviving the historic Washington Star, sued over the name. The two sides settled the trademark dispute in June, with NOTUS abandoning its plans to use the Star moniker.
The Washington Sun will introduce a paywall later this month, with subscriptions priced at $9.99 per month, according to the Times. Its newsletters will remain free.
Milbank described the new publication Wednesday as an experiment in whether a general-interest outlet combining national and local coverage can thrive in the digital era.
“The Sun’s success is by no means assured,” he wrote.
