Friday brought more discouraging news for newspaper publishers, with the Washington Post Company announcing another round of revenue declines in the fourth quarter of 2011.
WaPo’s total revenues declined 10% to $1.06 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, due to declines at the company’s newspaper publishing, education, and broadcast TV divisions. Revenues were flat at WaPo’s cable TV division. Full-year revenues also declined 10% to $4.21 billion in 2011.
Total revenues for the newspaper publishing division declined 4% to $181 million in Q4. This was attributed mostly to continuing declines in print advertising revenue at The Washington Post, which sank 6% to $77.1 million. For the full year, newspaper publishing revenues fell 5% to $648.0 million in 2011, due again to declines in print advertising revenue, which sank 11% to $264.5 million.
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The company sustained losses in other divisions, as well. The educational unit, which includes Kaplan higher education, test prep and related businesses, saw total revenues decline 14% to $597.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2011. For the full year, revenues fell 14% to $2.47 billion in 2011.
The company’s broadcast TV division saw revenue decline 7% to $319 million in 2011, due mostly to the absence of political and Olympics advertising. WaPo’s cable TV revenues were basically flat at $191 million in the fourth quarter and $760 million for the full year.