New Delhi: Early this year, The Washington Post laid off one-third of its workforce. Several months later, some of those former employees have found jobs at The Washington Sun, a new publication seeking to fill the void left by the Post’s cuts.
In February, The Washington Post announced sweeping cuts that sent shockwaves through the media industry. Its sports section, weekly book section, podcasts and staff photography teams were removed, while some employees were retained in other departments.
Now, The Washington Sun, formerly known as NOTUS, is moving into the space that the Post’s job cuts left behind—expanding its coverage of local news and sports.
“We really wanted Washington in the name of our publication to more clearly convey that we cover Washington, both sort of political Washington and local Washington,” Editor-in-Chief Tim Grieve told The New York Times.
Subscriptions, metro news
NOTUS — News of the United States — was started by media entrepreneur Robert Allbritton, also the co-founder of Politico. For the last few years, the publication had focused on covering government and policy.
But Allbritton told NYT that when the Post pulled back from city news, he saw “a room to fill that void”.
Since Wednesday, NOTUS has officially been The Washington Sun.
The newsroom has doubled from 45 to 110 employees, and many former Post staffers have been hired, including food critic Tom Sietsema, columnist Dana Milbank and a number of sports reporters.
The Washington Sun now has dedicated teams for city and sports news. The publication, based in Washington, DC, has signed an exclusive content-licensing agreement with Capital Weather to run a daily forecast for the Washington area.
The forecasting website worked with the Post for 18 years as Capital Weather Gang.
“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,” Allbritton told the NYT.
From this month, the website will also introduce a paywall, with subscriptions priced at $9.99 per month. Newsletters will remain free.
The rebranding of NOTUS comes for the second time in 2026. In May, there were talks of rebranding it as The Star. It was supposed to be revived as The Washington Star, a newspaper that shut down in 1981. The move was announced by media executive Dovid Efune, who later filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against NOTUS.
In June, both parties resolved the lawsuit.
The Washington Sun had always been on a shortlist of names for the outlet.
On September 9, the website launched on X with a slick video.
“Welcome to The Washington Sun,” the caption read.
In another post, the website wrote that journalism in Washington needs a generational change.
“We are rising to meet it.”
“We cover politics and policy and the people who shape life in Washington—not just at the White House and in Congress, but at the Wilson Building, at Northwest Stadium and in the neighborhoods where we live,” it wrote.