Washington Post Receiving Increased Earnings

The Washington Post Corporation has recently reported an increase in earnings for the third-quarter of the current year. It is believed that the increased earnings are associated with advertising that took place during the summer Olympics and the profits received from cable television. While an increase in earnings is always something to be optimistic about, the company’s newspaper has continued to see a decline in circulation and in print advertisement revenue. The drop in print advertisement revenue comes at a time where more money is being put into the digital aspect of advertising instead. The Washington Post reported a total net income of around $93.8 million during the third-quarter. This was an increase from the total of approximately $6.2 million during the previous year.

While the total net income seems surprisingly high, once certain things were subtracted, including the tax benefits and one-time chargers, the company’s total third-quarter net income was $50.4 million instead. Even with the adjusted total, it is still more than the net income for the third-quarter of the previous year, back in 2011.

The broadcast division for the Washington Post managed to do the best, with revenue increasing by a total of 44 percent, reaching $106.4 million during the third quarter. Political advertising revenue also increased by $15.6 million for three of the different stations in the state of Florida, two of the station in Texas, and one of the stations in Michigan. Of course, this is no surprise since the elections are taking place on November 6^th. Advertising from the Olympics also helped to increase revenue for the broadcast stations.

While certain aspects of the company managed to do exceptionally well, the newspaper division continued to drag on, causing issues for the company and its optimistic results. The newspaper and the revenue from online news dropped down a total of 4 percent, reaching $137.3 million during the third quarter. Print advertising also dropped down by a total of 11 percent, reaching $51.4 million. However, revenue from online activity, including WashingtonPost.com, actually increased to $26.9 million, a total increase of 13 percent.

Online display advertisement revenue increased by 18 percent as well. Circulation for the Washington Post continued to drop down, as it has been for quite some time now. While The Washington Post did not provide figures for its third-quarter, it did say that the daily circulation dropped down by a total of 9.2 percent. While these declines did occur, they were slightly offset with the 8 percent drop of news printing costs that occurred during the third-quarter.