Washington Post shows profit in fourth quarter statement

Poynter’s Romenesko was hot on the trail of positive newspaper news Wednesday morning when he linked to two press releases announcing that the Washington Post Co. was reporting a profit after being in the red since their 2008 second quarter earnings.

According to an article by the Post’s Frank Ahrens, the Post Co. earned $91.2 million, up from $65.8 million the previous year.

The fourth quarter seemed to be a strong part of the year with the corporation nearly quadrupling their profits, earning $82.2 million in the 2009 forth quarter compared to $18.8 million in the same quarter of last year. Their performance in the last quarter, however, was not able to pull them out of negative numbers for the entire year.

It is also important to point out that the Post Co. runs television companies and a range of educational services as well as publishing newspapers in the D.C. area and magazines like Newsweek. More than half of the profits at the Post Co. come from their education division. And despite reported losses at Newsweek, it is exciting news in the media world that profits are up for their newspaper division alone.

From the Post’s own article to the Business Wire press release, sources are citing cost-cutting as the reason for the reported increase in operating income at the newspaper division of the company.

The reported profit is surprising considering 2009 saw a decline in classified, zones and retail advertising, but it was really the operating cutbacks that put the company in the black. The newspaper shut down a printing plant in Maryland and cut-back at one in Virginia.

And although daily circulation was down 5.9 percent this year, it seems the cutbacks paid off financially. The question now is, is the paper sacrificing good journalism to get out of the red zone?