The Washington Post began zoning its front page for Virginia, Maryland and D.C. on Tuesday, the day the Washington Examiner (which zones its front the same way) debuted. Executive Editor Leonard Downie Jr. said the move was "not exactly" coincidental.

"The fact that the Examiner itself has a zoned front page certainly made it a timely time to do it," Downie said.

He said the paper had been discussing the change for many months.

The Post also increased the size of a front-page box that highlights stories inside the paper, amplifying it to about one-third the paper's bottom half.

"It was a pretty decent debut issue," said Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz. "It looks and feels like a real newspaper as opposed to a cheap giveaway. I didn't see a whole lot of original reporting, but it was smartly packaged."

The longer-term question, Kurtz said, is whether the paper can have a journalistic impact by providing news other papers lack or whether it will serve largely as "an advertising vehicle."