Photo by Dan Macy
The Washington Post Company announced a few bits of good news for its shareholders today, with its quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission reporting increased revenue in its television divisions and newspaper advertising sales.
Yet while it enjoyed a 16 percent increase in online display advertising across its namesake newspaper’s website and on Slate, the newspaper division reported an operating loss of $34.5 million in the first quarter of 2013. It reported a $20.6 million loss in the first quarter of 2012.
Revenue in the dead-tree division was driven down by a decline in advertising revenue and subscriptions. Print advertising sales fell eight percent over the first three months of 2013, dropping to $48.6 million from $52.7 million over the same period a year earlier. The bulk of the decline in advertising came from general and retail display sales.
However, the Post Company did report an increase in overall revenue from its online publications, namely washingtonpost.com and Slate. Online revenue in the first quarter jumped eight percent to $25.8 million, compared to $23.9 million last year.
But the Post Company’s flagship product continues to see its circulation drop. Daily circulation numbers released earlier this week by the Alliance for Audited Media (formerly the Audit Bureau of Circulations) showed the Post with an average daily circulation of 474,767 as of March 31. That’s a 6.5 percent decline from the 507,615 reported as of March 31, 2012. The Washington Post has the seventh-highest readership of U.S. newspapers.
The circulation audit also credited the Post with a 16.5 percent increase in Sunday circulation, with 838,014. However, that increase can be credited to the Post once again reporting the distribution of Savings Now, a branded publication that it distributes.
Where the Post fails to chart among the top 25 papers, though, is on digital subscriptions. Currently, it reports only 42,313 digital subscriptions, though the paper expects that number to spike later this week when it raises a paywall. “The fact that so many papers have digital subscription models now might explain where we fall,” Kris Coratti, a spokesman for the newspaper, told DCist.
