Washington Post 2002 Annual Report Download - page 3

PART I
Item 1. Business.
The principal business activities of The Washington Post Company (the ‘‘Company’’) consist of newspaper publish-
ing (principally The Washington Post), television broadcasting (through the ownership and operation of six VHF
television stations), the ownership and operation of cable television systems, magazine publishing (principally
Newsweek magazine), and (through its Kaplan subsidiary) the provision of educational services.
Information concerning the consolidated operating revenues, consolidated income from operations and identifiable
assets attributable to the principal segments of the Company’s business for the last three fiscal years is contained in
Note M to the Company’s Consolidated Financial Statements appearing elsewhere in this Annual Report on
Form 10-K. (Revenues for each segment are shown in such Note M net of intersegment sales, which did not exceed
0.1% of consolidated operating revenues.)
During each of the last three years the Company’s operations in geographic areas outside the United States
(consisting primarily of the publication of the international editions of Newsweek) accounted for less than 4% of the
Company’s consolidated revenues and the identifiable assets attributable to such operations represented less than
2% of the Company’s consolidated assets.
Newspaper Publishing
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is a morning and Sunday newspaper primarily distributed by home delivery in the Washington,
D.C. metropolitan area, including large portions of Virginia and Maryland.
The following table shows the average paid daily (including Saturday) and Sunday circulation of The Post for the
twelve-month periods ended September 30 in each of the last five years, as reported by the Audit Bureau of
Circulations (‘‘ABC’’) for the years 1998-2001 and as estimated by The Post for the twelve-month period ended
September 30, 2002 (for which period ABC had not completed its audit as of the date of this report) from the semi-
annual publisher’s statements submitted to ABC for the six-month periods ended March 31, 2002 and Septem-
ber 30, 2002:
Average Paid Circulation
Daily Sunday
1998 *********** 774,414 1,095,091
1999 *********** 775,005 1,085,060
2000 *********** 777,521 1,075,918
2001 *********** 771,614 1,066,723
2002 *********** 768,600 1,058,889
The newsstand price for the daily newspaper was increased from $0.25 (which had been the price since 1981) to
$0.35 effective December 31, 2001. The newsstand price for the Sunday newspaper has been $1.50 since 1992.
In July 2002 the rate charged for home-delivered copies of the daily and Sunday newspaper for each four-week
period was increased to $12.60 from $11.88, which had been the rate since February 2001. The corresponding
rate charged for Sunday-only home-delivery has been $6.00 since 1991.
General advertising rates were increased by an average of 4.8% on January 1, 2002, and by another 3.2% on
January 1, 2003. Rates for most categories of classified and retail advertising were increased by an average of
4.5% on February 1, 2002, and by an additional 3.7% on February 1, 2003.
The following table sets forth The Post’s advertising inches (excluding preprints) and number of preprints for the past
five years:
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Total Inches (in thousands) **** 3,199 3,288 3,363 2,714 2,657
Full-Run Inches************ 2,806 2,745 2,634 2,296 2,180
Part-Run Inches *********** 393 543 729 418 477
Preprints (in millions) ********* 1,650 1,647 1,602 1,556 1,656
2002 FORM 10-K 1