Washington City Paper Seeks Journalism Bankruptcy

Filing asks court for protection from readers, expectations, standards.

"The journalism/content of City Paper has also undergone a significant upheaval in the age of the Internet. Even before City Paper began placing its stories online, its journalists suspected that perhaps not a great multitude of readers were reading their work. Specific concerns clustered over the paper’s cover story, often a long piece of narrative journalism exceeding 5,000 words. Other questions about reader popularity attached to smaller news stories as well, which often related to landlord-tenant disputes, police misconduct, and, once, the rise of chai.

"The filing will not interrupt Washington City Paper’s operations in the form of blog posts about insects in our buildings, obsessions about Washington outsider-cum-maverick Sarah Palin, and neighborhood observations up to and including "Columbia Heights Day=Dull Times." Erik Wemple, editor, adds: "We love our readers—always have and always will. But that doesn’t mean that we’re above asking the federal courts for a break from them.”