Washington Post 2003 Annual Report Download - page 34

In accordance with Department of Education regulations, a number of the schools in Kaplan's Higher Education Division are
combined into groups of two or more schools for the purpose of determining compliance with Title IV requirements.
Including schools that are not combined with other schools for that purpose, the Higher Education Division currently has
36 Title IV reporting units, the largest of which in terms of revenue accounted for approximately 17% of the Division's
2003 revenues. If the Department of Education were to find that one reporting unit had failed to comply with any
applicable Title IV requirement and as a result limited, suspended or terminated the Title IV eligibility of the school or schools
in that unit, that action normally would not affect the Title IV eligibility of the schools in other reporting units that had
continued to comply with Title IV requirements. For the most recent year for which data is available from the Department of
Education, the cohort default rate for the Title IV reporting units in Kaplan's Higher Education Division averaged 10.9%,
and no unit had a cohort default rate of 25% or more. In 2003 those reporting units derived an average of less than 80%
of their receipts from Title IV programs, with no unit deriving more than 88.5% of its receipts from such programs.
All of the Title IV financial aid programs are subject to periodic legislative review and reauthorization, and the next
reauthorization is scheduled to take place during the current Congressional term. In addition, the availability of funding for
the Title IV programs that provide non-repayable grants is wholly contingent upon the outcome of the annual federal
appropriations process.
Whether as a result of changes in the laws and regulations governing Title IV programs, a reduction in Title IV program
funding levels, or a failure of schools included in Kaplan's Higher Education Division to maintain eligibility to participate in
Title IV programs, a material reduction in the amount of Title IV financial assistance available to the students of these schools
would have a significant negative impact on Kaplan's operating results.
Other Activities
BrassRing
The Company beneficially owns a 49.3% equity interest in BrassRing LLC, an Internet-based hiring management company.
The other principal members of BrassRing are the Tribune Company with a 26.9% interest; Gannett Co., Inc. with a
12.4% interest; and the venture capital firm Accel Partners with a 10.5% interest.
Production and Raw Materials
The Washington Post and Express are produced at the printing plants of WP Company in Fairfax County, Virginia and
Prince George's County, Maryland. The Herald and The Enterprise Newspapers are produced at The Daily Herald
Company's plant in Everett, Washington, while The Gazette Newspapers and the Southern Maryland Newspapers are all
printed at the commercial printing facilities owned by Post-Newsweek Media, Inc. Greater Washington Publishing's
periodicals are produced by independent contract printers with the exception of one periodical that is printed at one of the
commercial printing facilities owned by Post-Newsweek Media, Inc. All PostNewsweek Tech Media publications are
produced by independent contract printers.
Newsweek 's domestic edition is produced by three independent contract printers at six separate plants in the United
States; advertising inserts and photo-offset films for the domestic edition are also produced by independent contractors.
The international editions of Newsweek are printed in England, Singapore, Switzerland, the Netherlands, South Africa and
Hollywood, Florida; insertions for The Bulletin are printed in Australia. Since 1997 Newsweek and a subsidiary of Time
Warner have used a jointly owned company based in England to provide production and distribution services for the
Atlantic editions of both Newsweek and Time . In 2002 this jointly owned company began providing certain production and
distribution services for the Asian editions of these magazines. Budget Travel is produced by one of the independent
contract printers that also prints Newsweek 's domestic edition.
In 2003 The Washington Post and Express consumed about 190,000 tons* and 700 tons of newsprint, respectively. Such
newsprint was purchased from a number of suppliers, including Bowater Incorporated, which supplied approximately 33%
of the 2003 newsprint requirements for these newspapers. Although for many years some of the newsprint purchased for
The Post from Bowater Incorporated typically was provided by Bowater Mersey Paper Company Limited, 49% of the
common stock of which is owned by the Company (the majority interest being held by a subsidiary of Bowater
Incorporated), since 1999 none of the newsprint consumed by either The Post or Express has come from that source.
Bowater Mersey owns and operates a newsprint mill near Halifax, Nova Scotia, and owns extensive woodlands that
provide part of the mill's wood requirements. In 2003 Bowater Mersey produced about 268,000 tons of newsprint.
* All references in this report to newsprint tonnage and prices refer to short tons (2,000 pounds) and not to metric tons (2,204.6 pounds), which are often used
in newsprint price quotations.
14 THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY