Washington Post Death Spiral Accelerates?

Is the death spiral facing the Washington Post — in which the newspaper itself is losing circulation and advertising, forcing the company to rely more heavily on the for-profit education industry (hence the nickname “Kaplan Post”) — accelerating?  Based on this story, it sure looks like it.

ARLnow.com is hearing that Christy Goodman, the Washington Post’s Arlington/Alexandria reporter, is no longer with the paper as of today.

That news comes as Washington Post employees are reporting on Twitter that the Post may be planning to shutter all of its Virginia and Maryland local bureaus, with the exception of Richmond and Annapolis. The Post currently has local bureaus in Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun County, Prince William County and elsewhere.

True, they’re keeping their Richmond bureau open, but what do the other closures mean for the Post’s coverage of northern Virginia? And, if there is a vacuum, who will fill it?  The Patch websites? Online “newspapers” like ArlNow? Blogs? Other? None of the above? And, most importantly, will we be better or worse informed citizens as the “dead tree” newspaper model continues to decline? I mean, as infuriating and inconsistent as the corporate Post can be, it’s still a lot better than most blogs (certainly the right-wing ones — my god, have you read those things recently?!?), let alone the idiot box (appropriately nicknamed) or the far-right-wing whatever-they-are’s (I’m not sure they qualify as real newspapers, as they’re basically propaganda rags funded by wealthy right wingnuts, and not much more) Moonie Times, Washington Examiner, and local right-wing real estate rag?  I don’t know about you, but this situation doesn’t exactly give me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside.