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Media

Washington Post Execs Bury Heads In Sand After 66% Decline In Profit

12:06 pm, May 6th | by Hillary Reinsberg


Another day, another first-quarter earning report — and the Washington Post Company is not doing too well. But wait, what? Did someone say something? No! Just run, and hide…quick!

The company, which owns the Washington Post newspaper and the Kaplan education company, reported profit was down 66 percent this quarter, but (as far as we can tell) no higher-ups at the company have made a statement about it, except for an ever-present, unnamed spokesperson.

Oh, so blame the “new media” and “the death of print newspapers,” yeah? No, actually. The decline in profits, says Reuters, is mostly tied to Kaplan, the famous test-preparation and continuing education services company. New enrollment at the Kaplan programs was down 48 percent.

Where is CEO Donald Graham, whose family has long reigned over the WaPo empire? Or even the vice chairman, Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr.? Nowhere to be found.

This was the best we got: “The company expects Kaplan Higher Education’s operating income to continue to decline very substantially for the remainder of 2011 versus prior year performance, due to lower student enrollment levels,” the company said in a (nameless) statement.

Graham isn’t commenting on the state of the Post or the tribulation of Kaplan right now — but in December, he did defend Kaplan. “I believe in what Kaplan Higher Education does. I think its work benefits its students and in a sense benefits the country by educating people who need the education,” the Washington Post (who else!) quoted him as saying.

We’ve got a feeling that, despite profit declines, Graham is doing just fine. He’s a longtime investor and member of the exclusive board of directors at Facebook.

TAGS:

  • Anonymous

    Surely there is a good reason to pay to have a print publication printed somewhere, trucked to your town, and distributed all over town, all for the privilege of reading news that’s a day late and filtered through liberal bias at 2 or 3 levels.. Right?

  • Barack must Go

    …. I’m guessing you meant to say in ass…..butt just couldn’t bring yourself to do it

  • http://profiles.google.com/lindalovison Linda Marie Lovison

    I have found that the left-leaning bias is tiring.

  • Spike1120

    Kaplan is a sham. The program spends an inordinate time on vocabualry – a important subject which has been lifted to he 21st century by myriad CD program AND grammar the least important part of the SAT test.

    Furthermore teachers are changes constantly so that parts of the same test are taught in many different ways. They are also paid low wages which does not inspire these kids’ best efforts.

    They have reduced their prices from $1250 per student to $500 per student. They have gone into he local schools and offered free testing using a combination of KAPLAN produced SAT and ACT test which are purposely difficult to encourage enrollment.

    Undeniable they do help certain people just as the Princeton company has adopted the Kaplan techniques for enticing students. But it is still a gigantic ripoff.

  • Anonymous

    Everyone knows the truth of the decline is because of the WaPo’s liberal and bias reporting finally got so obvious people just stopped reading the rag.

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