Washington Post Co.'s newspaper division sees Q4 profit

Posted by Erina Lin on February 25, 2010 at 4:40 PM

The Washington Post Co. announced Wednesday that its fourth-quarter profit increased to $82.2 million, or $8.71 a share, more than quadruple year-over-year. This gain is mostly due to a big reduction in accounting charges and the strong growth of its education division and the cable television business. The newspaper division was profitable after cutting employees, according to the Associated Press article posted on The New York Times.

Overall 4Q revenue increased 6 percent to $1.63 billion, up from $1.24 billion one year previous, Editor and Publisher reported.

The key contributors to the increases are due primarily the education division and increased revenue at the cable division, which partially compensated revenue loss at the company's newspaper, magazine publishing and television broadcasting divisions.

Newspaper revenue dropped 4 percent in 4Q to $193.3 million. Print ad revenue declined 9 percent to $92.6 million - with classified, zones and retail advertising down while general advertising up.

Online newspaper revenue, mostly from washingtonpost.com, was up 1 percent to $31.5 million, while online classified plunged 17 percent in Q4, according to the company statement.