Papers: the capital desk
Washington Post advertising cost
A national masthead whose print run lives in one metro, which is exactly what some buyers are paying for.
The Washington Post is quote-only for print in 2026: its media kit site carries audience and product material, and rates come from the sales team on request. No public card was found at retrieval. The buy’s distinctive property is concentration: national editorial stature, but print distribution centered on the DC metro area, where the policy audience lives.
Source: Washington Post media kit, retrieved Jul 31, 2026.
Rate posture
Quote-only
Quote-only; media kit publishes audience and product material, print rates supplied by the sales team on request.
Source: Washington Post media kit, retrieved Jul 31, 2026.
Cheapest published figure
None
Quote-only; no public print rate card found on the media kit site.
Verified 2026-07-31. Recent changes: None verified.
Getting a quote without getting a bundle
The Post, like most quote-only desks, prefers to sell programs: print plus digital plus sponsorship. The discipline is the same as everywhere in this tier: request the print-only figure for a named unit (say, a half page, 63 column inches, weekday main news) and dates, in writing, before discussing anything blended. With that number you can compare the Post directly against the tier’s published benchmark via NYT vs Washington Post and the rate table. Close times and materials rules follow the standard two-clock pattern on the deadline page; the Post’s spec sheet states its exact cutoffs.
Fit
Who the Post buy is actually for
Three buyers fit: organizations that need to be seen by government (advocacy, defense, associations, anyone whose customer testifies before it); DC-metro businesses for whom the Post is simply the local metro daily; and open-letter campaigns aimed at the policy conversation. A consumer brand buying national reach does better per dollar in USA Today’s network or the WSJ’s published card; a non-DC regional business belongs with its own metro paper.
Source: Washington Post media kit, retrieved Jul 31, 2026. Audience positioning per the media kit; fit analysis is buying craft.