Washington Post's credit rating could fall

In another sign of worsening financial times, The Washington Post, which has historically had one of the best credit ratings among U.S. newspapers, could see that rating lowered by Moody's Investors Service.
Concerns have arisen over the Post Co.'s pending purchases, including the possible acquisition of NBC's Miami affiliate. Moody's fears that these will "sustain leverage at levels that are already weak for the A1 rating."

Moody's said it anticipates growth in the Post Co.'s Kaplan education business plus its CableOne cable TV holding "will mitigate some of the secular and cyclical pressure in the traditional media properties over the next several years, but that earnings growth might not be sufficient to return leverage to the levels appropriate for the A1 rating."

One bright side to the news is that Moody's still considers the Post Co. to have a low level of debt when compared with its earnings.

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