49% = The % of the Washington Post Company's revenues attributed to its Kaplan education business, up from 40% two years prior. (See table below)
It's clear that we're seeing a significant disruption of significant industry (a rather interesting disruption I might add). The issue is that print media companies are struggling for growth as their core sources of revenue (advertising and classifieds) shift online. The Washington Post company is an example of a company going outside its core competence of news reporting and into another avenue of publishing. Despite WPO's ability to grow the top line, they continue to see an operating income erosion, which I suspect is a direct result of the aforementioned declines in advertising and classifieds revenues. However, WPO is clearly straddling two disparate competencies (test prep/education and news media). Is this divirsification sustainable, or even in the best interests of shareholders?
The decline of print is a HUGE topic, which I hope to have some more posts on in the very near future. There are some very significant strategic questions that many very smart people are trying to answer as they attempt to lead (or consult) their companies to success during this turmiol.
- What is the future of the mid-market and small town paper?
- Will publications like the WSJ finally provide their articles for free online?
- Will the general public adopt RSS readers on a large scale?
Source: http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displayfilinginfo.aspx?filingid=5764444&tabindex=2&type=html
It's clear that we're seeing a significant disruption of significant industry (a rather interesting disruption I might add). The issue is that print media companies are struggling for growth as their core sources of revenue (advertising and classifieds) shift online. The Washington Post company is an example of a company going outside its core competence of news reporting and into another avenue of publishing. Despite WPO's ability to grow the top line, they continue to see an operating income erosion, which I suspect is a direct result of the aforementioned declines in advertising and classifieds revenues. However, WPO is clearly straddling two disparate competencies (test prep/education and news media). Is this divirsification sustainable, or even in the best interests of shareholders?
The decline of print is a HUGE topic, which I hope to have some more posts on in the very near future. There are some very significant strategic questions that many very smart people are trying to answer as they attempt to lead (or consult) their companies to success during this turmiol.
- What is the future of the mid-market and small town paper?
- Will publications like the WSJ finally provide their articles for free online?
- Will the general public adopt RSS readers on a large scale?
December 30, | December 31, | January 1, | ||||||||||
(in thousands, except per share amounts) | 2007 | 2006 | 2006 | |||||||||
Operating Revenues | ||||||||||||
Education | $ | 2,030,889 | $ | 1,684,141 | $ | 1,412,394 | ||||||
Advertising | 1,234,643 | 1,358,739 | 1,317,484 | |||||||||
Circulation and subscriber | 817,807 | 772,250 | 740,004 | |||||||||
Other | 97,067 | 89,797 | 84,005 | |||||||||
4,180,406 | 3,904,927 | 3,553,887 | ||||||||||
Source: http://yahoo.brand.edgar-online.com/displayfilinginfo.aspx?filingid=5764444&tabindex=2&type=html
0 comments:
Post a Comment