Managers of the paper cited its deteriorating financial condition for the decision to cease publishing. Although they declined to cite specific figures, they said the printed paper had recently begun to lose money.
Colorful and lively, Express was designed to be a fast read for public-transit commuters each morning, especially people who didn't subscribe to The Post. It featured eye-catching and sometimes cheeky cover illustrations that highlighted a single news story or trend, often one underplayed by The Post or ignored by TV newscasts.
It also contained a mix of news stories and features drawn from The Post and original stories and opinion columns produced by its own staff, now numbering 20 journalists. They will be laid off as a result of the paper's closure.
The publication was distributed free of charge each morning via old-fashioned newspaper hawkers (who numbered around 75) at Metro stations and via newspaper boxes. At its peak in 2007, it was distributed to around 190,000 people per day, said Dan Caccavaro, its executive editor. At that point, it was handsomely profitable, he said, and so popular that there was discussion of publishing an afternoon edition for the ride home.
But its circulation has declined in recent years, falling to around 130,000 copies a day this year. The drop reflected, in part, falling Metro ridership, which has been driven by a switch to home telework, riding-sharing services and other means of transportation, Caccavaro said.
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