The final edition of the Washington Post Express was published today, meaning 20 journalists and 75 distributors are out of a job.

Rachel Kurzius / DCist

Every weekday morning, David Anderson’s alarm goes off at 3:45 a.m. He takes a bus from Oxon Hill, Md. into D.C. and switches trains twice to arrive at the Rhode Island Ave-Brentwood Metro to distribute the Washington Post Express to commuters.

“I’m a people person,” says Anderson, who has passed out copies of Express since 2014, and also had stints at the Fort Totten and Brookland stations. “It was wonderful meeting a lot of new people. Every day when people see me, they greet me and I greet them.” He first learned about the gig through someone distributing the paper at the Takoma Metro station.

But he found out yesterday afternoon in a phone call from his boss that today would be his final day hawking the free paper. (WaPo hires a third-party company to contract out the distributors.) “It caught me off guard,” says Anderson, who at first thought he was being pranked. “I actually went online and looked and I was like, ‘Okay, he’s not lying.'”

Anderson is one of 75 Express distributors who lost their steady contract positions when the Washington Post closed the paper.

“More and more readers are consuming The Post’s content digitally,” the paper explained in a post on its public relations blog announcing the decision to close the 16-year-old publication. “The Post will continue to serve those who commute via Metro with digital products, including its mobile site, apps, newsletters and podcasts.” The growth of online news had led to a decrease in circulation, the paper reports, though Washington Post communications manager Molly Gannon declined to say if Express was still profitable.

Express’ final edition had a pointed cover that read, “Hope you enjoy your stinkin’ phones.” Since 2003, the free paper provided commuters with repackaged WaPo and Associated Press journalism, along with original reporting from Express writers and a daily crossword puzzle, among other features.

Along with the distributors, 20 Express journalists learned on Wednesday afternoon that their jobs no longer existed. The newsroom employees were not part of the Washington Post Guild, the union to which many of their Post colleagues belong. “When these layoffs came, without a union, our colleagues in Express were not guaranteed the same protections as guild-covered Washington Post employees,” the Guild wrote in a strongly-worded statement.

Dan Caccavaro, the executive editor of Express, wouldn’t provide specifics about severance pay for the 20 journalists, but told DCist that “it’s better than the horror stories we’ve heard [about other publications]. I think they’ve been fair.” He said that he didn’t have insight about what was next for the distributors.

“I know that our readers have genuinely loved them,” says Caccavaro. “It’s not an easy job and that people have done it, so many of them, so cheerfully for so long, it’s admirable and something I think people will really miss.” He adds that he received more emails about the hawkers over his time at Express than anything else—”just absolutely the nicest emails you can imagine.”

Indeed, social media was flooded with accounts of friendly and kind distributors who were beloved by the people who saw them on a daily basis through all kinds of inclement weather.

But because they are contracted through a company that the Post hires, the hawkers will not receive any severance pay. For Anderson, distributing Express isn’t his only job, but that dependable bi-weekly pay helps ensure he can pay for his son’s daycare, among other expenses. “Yes, I am really concerned,” he says. “It’s going to be hard. I just wish they had at least given me a heads up.”

And he worries for other distributors, who have been hawking Express even longer. James, for instance, has handed out the paper for 14 years.

O’Neil Paul, a 77-year-old retired postal worker who has spent the past three years distributing Express at Reston and Vienna Metro stations, told WAMU he was more concerned for hawkers who had been in the role for longer. He had noticed a decrease in how many papers he passed out over time. “When I first started, we used to do more papers than now,” he said.

Hassan Nezhadessivandi, a hawker in Dupont, didn’t learn about Express’ closure until Thursday morning. He arrived about 20 minutes before his 6 a.m. start time to get ready for the day. When he handed the first paper to a bus driver, she started talking to him about the news. He didn’t believe her at first, until she prompted him to look at the paper.

“I looked, and it was the front page that said Express is closing down,” Nezhadessivandi says. “That was the only time I found out about it. I was really disappointed.”

Annie D’Amato, a Dupont resident, had grown accustomed to seeing Nezhadessivandi, who also lives in Dupont, around the neighborhood. “He’s just absolutely the nicest man you could ever meet,” she says. “I know he means a lot to other people in our community.”

So D’Amato started a GoFundMe campaign for Nezhadessivandi, with an initial goal of $1,000. She and her sister decided to hang up signs around the neighborhood promoting the fundraiser, and spent Friday morning where Nezhadessivandi used to distribute papers to hand out flyers to commuters. In less than a day, the GoFundMe has surpassed $6,500.

“God bless them,” says Nezhadessivandi of the community members who have contributed. “I’m very grateful for them. I didn’t expect them to do that because they have their own problems and expenses.”

D’Amato says she received multiple requests from people who saw the GoFundMe and wondered how they could best support their neighborhood hawker. So she has launched a separate fundraiser to help all 75 Express distributors, with the help of their boss in identifying the workers. “We might as well try to literally spread the wealth to all the Express workers,” D’Amato says.

Anderson received a lot of hugs and one tip on his final day hawking Express. He says his boss told him there may be a flyering gig for him on Monday, though it’s not yet locked down. He has already started applying for other jobs online. He’ll miss Express, he says, and not just because of the paycheck: “I read that paper every day.”

Previously:
Washington Post Express Is Shutting Down

This story has been updated with comment from Hassan Nezhadessivandi and Annie D’Amato.

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