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2 | GRAHAM HOLDINGS COMPANY
As you may have heard, we sold The Washington
Post to Je Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com,
last year.
Obviously, this was the most important thing
our Company did in the past 12 months. But I’d
like to spend most of this report on the future
of the Company we own today, now known
as Graham Holdings. Following this letter, I’ve
included the statement I made about the sale
at the time it was announced. The only thing I’d
add is that after four months, Je appears to
be as good an owner as I had hoped. The paper
itself is excellent.
3
3
3
The sale and a couple of related events had a
positive impact on our balance sheet. At year-
end we had almost $1.2 billion in cash and secu-
rities against $451 million in debt.
This cash position will be strengthened some-
time in 2014: we’ve announced the sale of
the Post building at 1150 15th Street, NW, to
Carr Properties for $159 million pre-tax. The
cash should hit our balance sheet in the first
half of the year. We’ve also announced our
intention to sell some land on the Alexandria,
Virginia, waterfront (less valuable than the Post
site, but meaningful). This may take place in
2014 as well.
3
3
3
Our Company owns three large businesses. The
largest profit-earner in 2013 (narrowly) was
Post–Newsweek Stations.
The year strengthened our belief that PNS has
an excellent CEO in Emily Barr, who completed
her first full year.
Profits in local TV are much greater in even-
numbered (election and Olympic) years than
in odd-numbered years. But 2013, when PNS
made $171 million in operating income, far out-
stripped 2011 ($117 million). And, 2014 should
be outstanding: our two largest stations are
NBC aliates and aired the Winter Olympics;
Florida, Michigan and Texas will have contested
statewide elections.
We welcomed Bert Medina, a longtime Miami
broadcaster, to lead WPLG and to broaden
its reach in the market. Our Detroit and San
Antonio stations and our amazing Jacksonville
independent continued to lead their markets in
news. Houston and Orlando had genuine rat-
ings momentum as the year ended.
3
3
3
Headquartered in Phoenix and serving smaller
markets in the West, Midwest and South, Cable
AS YOU MAY HAVE HEARD, WE SOLD THE WASHINGTON POST TO JEFF BEZOS,
THE FOUNDER OF AMAZON.COM, LAST YEAR.
To Our Shareholders