Spokeswoman suggests newpapers try tabloid format

Spokeswoman suggests newpapers try tabloid format
Offers advice to industry over declining circulation

Perhaps newspapers should try the tabloid format, says White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

She was responding to a question whether the president is concerned over the future of the news industry.

"In the just released 2007 annual report of The Washington Post Company, Chairman Donald Graham writes, 'The Washington Post circulation continued to fall, and a sharp drop in classified advertising raised questions about the future of our business,'" said Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House.

"Question, since The Washington Post is a leading part of one of this nation's most important businesses, do you and the president share Don Graham's expressed questioning about its future?" he asked.

"No. I think that the free press is alive and well," she said.

But then, in a followup, Kinsolving asked, "By striking contrast, The New York Post is constantly gaining circulation. And my question, do you and the president believe that The Washington Post might also gain, rather than lose, if its editorial and reportorial writing were more like The New York Post rather than like The New York Times, which is also seriously losing circulation?"

"Maybe they ought to look at the tabloid format, I don't know," Perino said.

"But how about the content, not just …," Kinsolving said.

"I'm not going to comment on that," she said.