SPECULATION OVER WHETHER THE WASHINGTON POST PRINT EDITION COULD CEASE
December 26th 2007 11:08
It’s a big call, but BuzzFlash is running with the notion that the Washington Post print edition could cease publication.
It cites recent statements to Wall Street by the chairman of the Washington Post Corporation, Donald Graham who, in the Post itself, confirmed that the parent company now no longer saw itself as primarily a news corporation, but rather an education and media company.
The Washington Post Corporation acquired Kaplan Inc, and the growing education enterprise now accounts for 50 percent of its revenue.
In a December 6 article, The Washington Post reported that the corporation’ newspaper division, which is primarily the Post, accounts for 21 cents of every dollar.
The Post Company also owns Cable One, a small cable television system with customers primarily in the south and northwest [of the US] that generates 15 cents of every dollar of company income; six television stations (8 cents of every dollar), Newsweek magazine and Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel magazines (6 cents), the web magazine Slate and several smaller newspapers and publications.
One newspaper industry analyst, John Morton, went so far as to, ironically, tell a Washington Post reporter, "The company probably ought to be identified as an education company and get The Washington Post name out of the title."
The Post newspaper's average daily circulation peaked at 832,232 in 1993. It now sells an average of 638,800 papers Monday through Saturday. Operating income for the company's newspaper division, primarily The Post, fell 50 percent during the third quarter this year, compared with the third quarter of 2006.
The paper's income has seen a sharp drop in real estate advertising and the continued bleeding of classified and employment advertising to the internet.
BuzzFlash concludes, “So, will the Washington Post newspaper shut down anytime soon? That’s highly unlikely in the short-term...It would be hard to imagine that the imprimatur, ‘The Washington Post,’ that has come to be equated with reporting on [US] national government (for better or for worse) might bite the dust as a print entity. In the long term, Rupert Murdoch could possibly pick it up and run it at a loss for its propaganda value in ingratiating himself with the Republican Party (as he does with the New York Post and the Weekly Standard, not to mention Fox which is profitable).”
- From MediaBlab
It cites recent statements to Wall Street by the chairman of the Washington Post Corporation, Donald Graham who, in the Post itself, confirmed that the parent company now no longer saw itself as primarily a news corporation, but rather an education and media company.
The Washington Post Corporation acquired Kaplan Inc, and the growing education enterprise now accounts for 50 percent of its revenue.
In a December 6 article, The Washington Post reported that the corporation’ newspaper division, which is primarily the Post, accounts for 21 cents of every dollar.
One newspaper industry analyst, John Morton, went so far as to, ironically, tell a Washington Post reporter, "The company probably ought to be identified as an education company and get The Washington Post name out of the title."
The Post newspaper's average daily circulation peaked at 832,232 in 1993. It now sells an average of 638,800 papers Monday through Saturday. Operating income for the company's newspaper division, primarily The Post, fell 50 percent during the third quarter this year, compared with the third quarter of 2006.
The paper's income has seen a sharp drop in real estate advertising and the continued bleeding of classified and employment advertising to the internet.
- From MediaBlab
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