Results tagged “Washington Post Co.”

The Washington Post Co. reported its second-quarter net income up to $91.9 million, from $12.2 million year-over-year. Continuing-operations income totaled $94.2 million, up from $21.2 million in the same period in 2009, Media Bistro reported.

The company added that its biggest business, the Kaplan test-prep and education services segment, could be hurt by the proposed rule changes at the U.S. Department of Education.

 

The Washington Post Co.-owned Newsweek has received bids and interest from several companies and individuals, including Newsmax Media, private equity fund OpenGate Capital, Ritchie Capital Management CEO Thane Ritchie (bidding on his own behalf), Sidney Harman (the owner of a stereo equipment company) and possibly even Newsweek's own editor, The New York Times reported.

Founded by former New York Post reporter Christopher Ruddy, Newsmax Media publishes a politically conservative-leaning magazine and Web site, and confirmed its bid yesterday. He said the bid to buy Newsweek is an effort to "diversify and expand into numerous distinct media brand offerings," and the company would not put its political views on Newsweek. OpenGate managing partner Andrew Nikou told Bloomberg that the firm has submitted a bid. OpenGate also owns TV Guide.

The Washington Post Company has added a new collection of sites on its political blog network focused on state politics, MediaWeek reported.
 
Following the recent launch of PostPolitics.com, the newspaper publisher has partnered with 10, among the 50 state-centric independent blogs, chosen by its readers.

The Washington Post Co. announced today it will sell Newsweek, which it purchased in 1961. The company is going public with the news in order to engage as many potential buyers as possible, said the company's chairman, Donald E. Graham.

"We have reported losses in the tens of millions for the last two years," Graham said in a staff meeting this morning, according to Newsweek. "Outstanding work by Newsweek's people has significantly narrowed the losses in the last year and particularly in the last few months. But we do not see a path to continuing profitability under our management."

The Washington Post Company owned-Newsweek.com is joining the increasing number of news publishers experimenting with cloud computing. The weekly magazine is  outsourcing its Web site hosting duties to Amazon, MediaWeek reported.

Having incurred US$29.3 million operating losses in 2009, the move of shifting its hosting operations to an external host is aimed at cutting loses in its magazine division, thereby hoping to save approximately $500,000 annually.

The Washington Post announced yesterday it will launch a new business weekly April 19 called Capital Business, which will be sold by subscription on a weekly basis, the Washington Business Journal reported. To promote the title, subscribers who receive the newspapers each day will receive four complimentary issues.

The weekly will focus on trends and ideas shaping the business community, as well as the area's largest industries, such as government contracting, technology, finance, commercial real estate, national associations and the legal community, according to the press release posted by MarketWatch.

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.

A media critic at Washingtonian magazine yesterday panned the recent redesign of the Washington Post's print edition, likening the newspaper's makeover to a moving of deck chairs on the Titanic. Harry Jaffe was especially critical of the switch from Postroman to Scotch Roman font, a script apparently used since the 1800s.

"The new type is thinner and will allow the Post to get more words on the page," Jaffe wrote. "Being less bold, it is slightly harder to read, especially for Boomers with fading eye sight [sic], and they make up the bulk of print readers."

Media conglomerate News Corporation has recently been in talks with publishers about forming a news consortium to better enable the group to charge for news on both online and mobile devices, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

Thanks to its success with its partly paid, partly ad supported Wall Street Journal Online, News Corp. is "a logical leader" to expand that model elsewhere, according to the Times. Chief Digital Officer Jonathan Miller is "believed to have met" with publishers from Hearst Corp., the Washington Post Co., the New York Times Co. and Tribune Co., according to the Times, a Tribune-owned paper.

The Washington Post has announced it will close hyperlocal site LoudounExtra, which serves Loudoun county outside Washington, D.C., beginning Friday.

Many of the site's features will be available on a new page on washingtonpost.com, the announcement states. This includes local news, sports, entertainment information, announcements, community calendar and photos. The content currently on the site will be migrated to the Washington Post's site.

The Washington Post Co. has joined other newspaper publishing firms in seeing a second quarter profit, after extensive cost cutting measures reduced losses at its newspaper division, the Washington Post announced in an article Saturday.

The Post Co. reported a US$11.4 million net come with $1.13 billion in revenue for the second quarter. This compares to a $2.7 million loss, on $1.11 billion in revenue, for the same period last year.

The Washington Post Co. is discussing possible collaboration with Google, the Post's media writer, Howard Kurtz, reported Monday.

In an article on the Post's Web site, Kurtz wrote that "Post Co. chief executive Donald Graham and Google chief executive Eric Schmidt and their lieutenants have been holding talks about collaboration. This could range from creating new Web pages to technological tools for journalists or readers. Hanging over the talks is the reality that the search giant, while funneling vital traffic to news sites, vacuums up their content without paying a dime."

When asked if he would consider investing in newspapers, Warren Buffet replied that due to newspapers "possibility of going to just unending losses" he "would not buy them at any price," The Wall Street Journal reported.

While Buffet seemed confident in his share of the Washington Post Co., due to its strong cable business, he didn't deny that its newspaper branch is struggling.

The Washington Post Co. is the most recent newspaper company to reveal a significant loss for the first economic quarter of 2009, with an $18.7 million deficit, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The company's newspapers and magazines continue to suffer amid the recession and consequent advertising decline, with the newspaper division reporting a 22 percent revenue decline. Flagship paper the Washington Post saw an advertising decline of 33 percent, while online advertising fell 8 percent.

Both The New York Times Co. and The Washington Post Co. have announced cost-cutting strategies that include layoffs, pay-cuts and buyouts, Bloomberg reported.

The Times Co. said it will cut a total of 100 positions on the business side of the company as well as implement salary cuts of up to 5 percent for the rest of the year. The Times Co.'s pay cuts will affect non-union employees of The New York Times, Boston Globe and the papers' Web sites, along with corporate executives.

The Washington Post plans to drop its business section, combining it with the front section for its Monday through Saturday editions Bloomberg reported Friday.

The decision is intended to curtail newsprint costs. The changes, including the reduction of the stock price listings to half a page, will be effective March 30.

Although its education business performed strongly, the Washington Post Company's earnings were down 77 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared to the same period the year before, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

The company's results were hindered by impairment charges of US$75.7 million due to writedowns in its business and community newspapers. Profits of businesses relying less on print advertising, helped revenues rise by 3 percent, to $1.16 billion.

Many U.S. newspaper company shares were up on Tuesday, after the U.S. Federal Reserve dropped its key interest rate target to a record low, vowing to use "all available tools" to shield the country's economy from an even more severe economic crisis and recession, the Associated Press reported.

Shares were up for A.H. Belo Corp., E.W. Scripps Co., Gannett Co., Journal Communications and the Washington Post Co.