Washington Post Co. loses nearl $20 million in quarter

The Washington Post Company released its quarterly results Friday, which showed that the company lost $19.2 million in the quarter, according to The New York Times.

The newspaper division reported an operating loss of $54 million. And to punctuate that unit’s decline, cable TV revenue overtook publishing for the first time. Now newspapers bring The Washington Post Co. less revenue than either cable or Kaplan education services, two units that have helped shield the company from the publishing industry’s woes. The Washington Post Co. had seen nine straight quarters of declining profit before the loss this time around.

The year-over-year decline in revenue was due largely to a decrease in ad revenue of 33 percent, a figure that has not been uncommon for other large newspaper companies so far in 2009.
However, while most other companies are seeing online ad revenue increases in the general range of 10 percent, the Washington Post Co. posted an 8 percent loss in the category.
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