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WaPo Reports Fourth-Quarter Loss
The Washington Post Co. reported a fourth-quarter 2012 loss of $45.4 million, or $6.57 a share, as it took $113 million of after-tax charges for goodwill write-downs and restructuring, mostly in its Kaplan education subsidiary. A year earlier, the company earned $61.7 million, or $8.03 a share

But The Post Co. said that, after excluding those and other special items, net income from continuing operations rose to $78.8 million, up 15 percent from the fourth quarter of 2011. It also stressed that its cash flow and cash positions were strong.
Diversify, you fools! Oh, wait...
Results at the company's four main subsidiaries were mixed. The Kaplan education unit and the newspaper division continued to struggle; revenue at each dropped about 6 percent, and operating income fell sharply. But revenue and profits at The Post Co.'s regional TV broadcast stations surged thanks to a flood of political advertising.
Gee, wonder what happens to that revenue in the next fiscal quarter...
The company's cable subsidiary also reported solid earnings.

Daily circulation at The Washington Post declined 8.6 percent, to an average of 471,800 for all of 2012, and Sunday circulation dropped 6.2 percent, to an average of 687,200.
There they are in the capital, captive audience, politically positioned just so, and they still can't sell newspapers...
But there must be a silver lining?
One benefit of the paper's woes: lower newsprint costs. Those expenses were down 10 percent in 2012 and in the fourth quarter. The company also announced that it had sold its 49 percent interest in troubled Bowater Mersey Paper Co., a forestry and paper mill business based in Nova Scotia, for a nominal amount. No gain or loss was recorded; the investment had already been written down to zero.
A total write-off? Brilliant, just brilliant management...
The company said accounting charges for pension plans depressed the newspaper's earnings, even though the company has made no cash contributions to the overfunded plans for many years.
Imagine that! The future caught up with them, too!
The company's big Kaplan education division, which accounted for 55 percent of The Post Co.'s revenue in 2012, continued to struggle, as well. The once-high-flying division -- which had operating income of $359.6 million in 2010 -- earned a more modest $65.5 million in all of 2012, down 55 percent from the year before. And the company said it expects to incur about $25 million in additional restructuring costs in 2013.

The Kaplan Higher Education unit faces growing competition as well as pressure from federal Education Department requirements.
I keep looking for an Irony Meter.
We have one but it keeps pegging and breaking...
New student enrollments at Kaplan University and Kaplan Higher Education campuses were down 1 percent in 2012, and the total number of students at the two programs was down 12 percent at the end of 2012, compared with the end of 2011.

The bright spots for the company continued to be cable and broadcast television. TV broadcasting revenue jumped 32 percent in the fourth quarter and 25 percent for the year. The television stations continued to benefit from political advertising.
You'll get a little bump in two years, and a bigger bump in four, if you're still around.
Posted by: Bobby 2013-02-23
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=362884