Washington Post 2004 Annual Report Download - page 17

PART I
Item 1. Business.
The principal business activities of The Washington Post Company (the ""Company'') consist of newspaper publishing
(principally The Washington Post ), television broadcasting (through the ownership and operation of six television
broadcast stations), the ownership and operation of cable television systems, the provision of educational services
(through its Kaplan subsidiary), and magazine publishing (principally Newsweek magazine).
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 N 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 N net of intersegment sales, which did not exceed 0.1% of consolidated operating
revenues.)
The Company's operations in geographic areas outside the United States (consisting primarily of Kaplan's foreign
operations and the publication of the international editions of Newsweek ) during the Company's 2004, 2003 and 2002
fiscal years accounted for approximately 6%, 5% and 3%, respectively, of its consolidated revenues, and the identifiable
assets attributable to such operations represented approximately 6% of the Company's consolidated assets at January 2,
2005 and December 28, 2003, and less than 2% of the Company's consolidated assets at December 29, 2002.
Newspaper Publishing
The Washington Post
WP Company LLC (""WP Company''), a subsidiary of the Company, publishes The Washington Post, which 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 12-
month periods ended September 30 in each of the last five years, as reported by the Audit Bureau of Circulations
(""ABC'') for the years 2000Ó2003 and as estimated by The Post for the 12-month period ended September 30, 2004
(for which period ABC had not completed its audit as of the date of this report) from the semiannual publisher's statements
submitted to ABC for the six-month periods ended March 31, 2004 and September 30, 2004:
Average Paid Circulation
Daily Sunday
2000ÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏ 777,521 1,075,918
2001ÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏ 771,614 1,066,723
2002ÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏ 767,843 1,058,458
2003ÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏ 749,323 1,035,204
2004ÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏ 729,981 1,016,533
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 2004 the rate charged for home-delivered copies of the daily and Sunday newspaper for each four-week period was
increased to $14.40 from $13.44, which had been the rate since July 2003. The corresponding rate charged for
Sunday-only home delivery has been $6.00 since 1991.
General advertising rates were increased by an average of approximately 5.3% on January 1, 2004, and by
approximately another 4.5% on January 1, 2005. Rates for most categories of classified and retail advertising were
increased by an average of approximately 3.2% on February 1, 2004, and by approximately an additional 3.4% on
February 1, 2005.
The following table sets forth The Post 's advertising inches (excluding preprints) and number of preprints for the past five
years:
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004
Total Inches (in thousands) ÏÏÏÏ 3,363 2,714 2,657 2,675 2,726
Full-Run Inches ÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏ 2,634 2,296 2,180 2,121 2,120
Part-Run Inches ÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏ 729 418 477 554 606
Preprints (in millions) ÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏÏ 1,602 1,556 1,656 1,835 1,887
2004 FORM 10-K 1