• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, December 2, 2009

Responding to the same downward trends in advertising and circulation that have bedeviled the rest of the newspaper business, The Washington Times is undertaking a major repositioning effort that will move it toward more multimedia distribution and de-emphasize its print content.

The new strategy coordinates distribution of Washington Times content and advertising through various channels, including digital, broadcast, print and wireless media. The revamp will also include a "significant" number of layoffs from its current roster of 370, although management did not specify how many.

On the content production front, the repositioning -- which should be complete by the middle of 2010 -- will increase investment in exclusive enterprise and investigative reporting, national political coverage, national security topics and cultural coverage "based on traditional values."

The newspaper will begin distributing a local print edition for free in certain areas, targeting audiences in certain "branches of the federal government and other key institutions." It will also offer delivery at a premium price, presumably to cover increasing circulation costs.

Current subscribers will also be offered subscriptions to the Washington Times digital edition and The Washington Times Weekly. On the digital front, the newspaper will expand its Web site, theconservatives.com, as well as its subscription-based e-briefings and other new digital resources.

In the broadcast arena, it also plans to expand syndication of its three-hour morning program "America's Morning News," through the Talk Radio Network. Finally, it will seek to create cost efficiencies and expand content coverage through closer cooperation with United Press International, including sharing photography and coordinating online sales.

The Washington Times, launched in 1982 by Sun Myung Moon, is one of the more recent additions to the American newspaper industry. It exists, in part, to present a conservative view of domestic politics and international events. While it has often relied on subsidies from Moon, the paper has come under increasing financial pressure as advertisers move dollars from print to digital media.

Last year, another conservative paper, the New York Sun, folded after six years of publication. The publisher cited financial difficulties resulting from the credit crunch, which began in September 2008.