The Baltimore Banner is hoping it can fill the huge hole left by the mass layoffs at the Washington Post earlier this month.

Including, it seems, for sports fans.

The Banner’s editor-in-chief Audrey Cooper announced Thursday that the outlet is expanding its sports desk to cover Washington, D.C.-area teams. The Banner will cover the NFL’s Commanders and MLB’s Nationals day to day, alongside bigger-picture “enterprise reporting” on the NHL’s Capitals, NBA’s Wizards, and Maryland Terrapins.

An internal email from Cooper was published to the Banner’s website.

More from Cooper:

At a time when so much pulls communities apart, sports bring us together. The Washington Post’s decision to eliminate its sports section creates an opportunity for us to serve more Marylanders with The Banner’s distinctive mix of fearless accountability reporting, engaging storytelling and sharp analysis.

To support this expansion, we will add journalists to the ambitious team led by Chris Korman. They will deliver regular beat coverage of the Nationals and Commanders, as well as enterprise reporting on the Capitals, Wizards and Terps. Our coverage begins soon, with stories from the Nationals’ spring training in Florida.

As part of a wave of layoffs last week that affected hundreds, the Washington Post completely axed its own storied sports desk. The historic paper will no longer cover the Commanders or any local team. Some sports reporters were folded into existing departments and are expected to continue covering the beat as “as a cultural and societal phenomenon.”

This week, Commanders head coach Dan Quinn honored the laid-off reporters from the Post at a press conference. Meanwhile, Nationals president Paul Toboni praised the paper’s work and its Nationals reporters in a start-of-season media session. Capitals coach Spencer Carberry did the same for the Post‘s beat reporter.

The Washington metro area is the seventh-largest in the U.S. and includes Baltimore, where the Banner has established a lucrative business model since its launch in June 2022. The outlet began with tens of millions in backing from businessman and former Maryland lawmaker Stewart Bainum Jr.

Since its inception, the Banner has invested heavily in sports coverage, breaking important stories including accusations of inappropriate sexual behavior by former Ravens kicker Justin Tucker. The outlet has two staffers covering the NFL’s Ravens and MLB’s Orioles respectively, as well as a sports columnist, three editors and a podcast host.

Based upon Cooper’s note, we can expect to see numerous hires soon. Nationals spring training begins next weekend in West Palm Beach.

Perhaps the Post‘s failures can be the Banner’s gain for DMV sports fans. There are, at the very least, numerous experienced beat reporters in need of new jobs who wouldn’t miss a beat joining the Banner’s newsroom.