Washington Post Still King, But Online newcomers Storm Gates

Politics isn't the only battle raging in the nation's capital these days. Media companies, too, are using sharp elbows -- and new technology -- in a grab for online readers.

The stakes are high. While the Washington metro area is the nation's ninth largest in terms of population, it's fifth from the top when it comes to local online ad spending, according to media consultants Borrell Associates. A full $500 million is expected to be spent on local online advertising here this year, reports Borrell, and that amount is projected to almost double -- to nearly $914 million -- by 2015. The big guy in the fight is The Washington Post, whose Web site is visited by almost half of the area adults during a given month, according to the spring survey by The Media Audit, a local and syndicated market and media research firm based in Houston. But nipping at its heels is a growing array of D.C.-area Web sites. The most aggressive challenge these days is Allbritton Communications, which has leveraged its ownership of ABC affiliate WJLA and regional cable network NewsChannel 8 into two lively, well-funded Web sites.