DC Refined, a three-year-old lifestyle site affiliated with WJLA, will apparently cease operations today.
“I am unfortunately reaching out today with a bit of sad news. The company has made the difficult decision to cease publication of DC Refined effective Friday, June 14,” managing editor Laura Wainman told freelancers earlier this week in an email that was obtained by DCist.
Wainman did not respond to a request for comment, nor did WJLA’s general manager or other representatives from the ABC affiliate, which is owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group. The conservative broadcaster has dramatically increased its nationwide media empire in recent years, and is known for pushing pro-Trump, anti-media messaging across its airwaves.
Politics were all but absent from DC Refined, which launched in 2016 with coverage of the city’s fashion, arts, travel, sports, fitness, and other topics. “We’re going to give everyone a little bit of everything,” Wainman said on WJLA at the time.
The site was modeled after two other Sinclair publications, Seattle Refined and Cincinnati Refined. It’s unclear if either site is affected.
Michael Solender, a long-time travel writer for DC Refined, told DCist that the site’s editors “indicated that they were proud of the product and the hard work” that went into the site. He added that the shutdown process “has been done in the most professional way.”
The archived site will remain live for a couple of weeks “to give everyone time to get copies of any work they may wish to use in portfolios,” per Wainman’s email.
Freelancer Nevin Martell has been an avid contributor to DC Refined since its inception, giving Washingtonians advice on the best places to eat in the city and in the wider D.C.-area. “I’m sad the site will no longer be a part of DC’s media landscape […] it provided great lifestyle coverage of the city,” he told DCist via email.
Martell had nothing but praise for Wainman, saying, “[she] deftly oversaw a broad portfolio of stories—from food and entertainment to travel and health.”
It’s would be the latest loss in D.C.’s constantly shifting local news scene.
Most recently, the Current newspapers shut down after 52 years (its former employees have gone on to found the non-profit digital outlet, the DC Line, and the for-profit weekly The Northwest Courier.) Within the last year, the city also lost the Sports Capitol and D.C. Music Download.
On the flip side, the Washington City Paper’s uncertain future was saved when D.C. philanthropist and entrepreneur Mark Ein bought the newspaper in December 2017. And DCist itself was shut down and revived by WAMU.
DC Refined wouldn’t be the first failed digital venture for WJLA. Its former owner, Allbritton Communications, launched the hyperlocal site TBD.com in 2010 and put it under control of WJLA a few months later, before ultimately pulling the plug entirely. (The TBD brand was also confusingly resurrected as a Sinclair TV network.) Sinclair also shuttered its millennial-focused video outlet Circa earlier this year, saying in a statement that “the digital space continues to change rapidly, and even larger outlets have faced significant challenges.”
But in the rise and fall of local journalism, you never really know if a site is gone for good. “If anyone decides to ‘pull a DCist’ and revive [DC Refined] on another platform, I hope to write for them again,” Martell said.
