Cost Cuts Lead Washington Post To Big Profit Jump

ANDREW VANACORE

NEW YORK (AP) — The Washington Post Co. increased its net income 69 percent in the third quarter, as the company cut costs to narrow losses at its newspapers and kept reaping profit from its cable TV and education divisions.

The company, which owns Newsweek magazine, Kaplan education services and television properties along with its namesake newspaper, said Friday it earned $17.1 million, or $1.81 per share. That compares with net income of $10.1 million, or $1.08 per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue climbed 2 percent to $1.15 billion.

The earnings were higher in part because the company took fewer charges to account for the declining value of assets on its books. After taxes, it took roughly $41 million in charges in the most recent quarter, down from $63 million during the third quarter of 2008.

But the company also improved the results by slashing expenses. The newspaper division, which includes the Post, The Daily Herald in Everett, Wash., and dozens of local weeklies, whittled its operating losses through buyouts and cost-cutting to $23.6 million, down from $82.7 million a year ago.