When did that happen? Washington Times is still the tiny paper playing on name similarity and owned by the Korean Moon Church, isn’t it?
Sun Myung Moon, leader of the Unification Church, started the paper in 1982 after the Washington Star folded. I was living in DC at the time and for many years after. When the Star was no more, I lamented at the time that if any town needed 2 papers with opposing views, it was certainly DC.
Everyone assumed that Moon would use the paper as a Unification propaganda tool. Never happened. He - as promised - kept his editorial and managements hands off of it and let the paper do its own thing except for keeping it financially supported.
It is not a perfect paper, yet it is my opinion that the paper continues to suffer from a reputation that was assumed on word of mouth as opposed to legitimate evaluation.
I made it a point to critically evaluate the paper for its relative objectivity. It's not perfect, but the Wtimes gives the other side of the story. They rightly and deservedly are considered a right wing paper, though their attempt at balance draws criticism from the right.
As an aside, I have copies of the last issue of the Star and the first issue of the WTimes.