Washington Post 2008 Annual Report Download - page 42

The principal offices of Newsweek are located at 251 West 57th Street in New York City, where Newsweek rents
space on nine floors. The lease term on this space will expire on April 30, 2009. Newsweek has executed a 15-year
lease at 395 Hudson Street, also in New York City, for approximately 18% less space than currently occupied with
occupancy commencing at the termination of the current lease. Remodeling of the new space has commenced. The lease
on this new space, subject to renewal rights, will expire on April 30, 2024. Budget Travel’s offices are also located in
New York City, where they occupy premises under a lease that was renewed through 2015. Newsweek also leases a
portion of a building in Mountain Lakes, NJ, to house its accounting, production and distribution departments. The lease
on this space will expire on July 31, 2012, but is renewable for one 5-year period at Newsweek’s option.
The headquarters offices of the Cable Television Division are located in a three-story office building in Phoenix, AZ, that
was purchased by Cable ONE in 1998. Cable ONE purchased an adjoining two-story office building in 2005; that
building is currently leased to third-party tenants. The majority of the offices and head-end facilities of the Division’s
individual cable systems are located in buildings owned by Cable ONE. Most of the tower sites used by the Division are
leased. In addition, the Division houses call-center operations in 60,000 square feet of rented space in Phoenix under a
lease that will expire in 2013.
Robinson Terminal Warehouse Corporation owns two wharves and several warehouses in Alexandria, VA. These facilities
are adjacent to the business district and occupy approximately 7 acres of land. Robinson also owns two partially
developed tracts of land in Fairfax County, VA, aggregating about 20 acres. These tracts are near The Washington
Post’s Virginia printing plant and include several warehouses. Robinson also owns 23 acres of undeveloped land on the
Potomac River in Charles County, MD.
WPNI occupies 85,000 square feet of office space in Arlington, VA, under a lease that will expire in 2015. Express
Publications Company subleases part of this space. In addition, WPNI leases space in Washington, DC, and Los
Angeles and subleases space from Newsweek in New York City for Slate’s offices in those cities. WPNI also leases
office space for WPNI sales representatives in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In January of
2008, WPNI entered into a two-year sublease for office space in Washington, DC, to house Foreign Policy magazine.
Greater Washington Publishing’s offices are located in leased space in Vienna, VA, while El Tiempo Latino’s offices are
located in leased space in Arlington, VA.
Item 3. Legal Proceedings.
Kaplan, Inc., a subsidiary of the Company, is a party to a previously disclosed class action antitrust lawsuit filed on
April 29, 2005, by purchasers of BAR/BRI bar review courses in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of
California. On February 2, 2007, the parties filed a settlement agreement with the court together with documents setting
forth a procedure for class notice. The court approved the terms of the settlement on July 9, 2007. However, certain class
members filed an appeal to the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and that appeal remains
pending. Effectiveness of the settlement is subject to court approval. On February 6, 2008, Kaplan was served with a
purported class action lawsuit alleging substantially similar claims as the previously settled lawsuit. The putative class
included all persons who purchased a bar review course from BAR/BRI in the United States since 2006 and all potential
future purchasers of bar review courses. On April 15, 2008, the court granted defendants’ motion to dismiss. An appeal
was filed by the plaintiffs on May 20, 2008. The appeal is pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Kaplan intends to vigorously defend this lawsuit.
On June 17, 2008, the Kaplan Aspect teachers filed a complaint in California Superior Court in San Francisco against
Kaplan, Inc. and Aspect Education, Inc. alleging wage and hour violations on behalf of a putative class of California
teachers. The Company is defending the complaint.
In 2007, the Company became aware of several state attorneys general who have opened inquiries or investigations
into arrangements between lenders and institutions of higher education. Subsidiaries of the Company received requests
for information from the Attorneys General of the states of Arizona, Iowa and Maryland regarding relationships with
student loan providers. The Company also became aware of similar requests from members of the U.S. Congress to at
least one lender with regard to its relationship with the Company and its subsidiaries, as well as other institutions of higher
education. The Company believes that these governmental authorities are conducting wide-ranging inquiries of student
lending practices generally, which, among other things, led to new legislation and other regulatory proposals and
changes in 2008. The Company believes that it was not the sole recipient of this type of information request. The
Company’s subsidiaries responded to these information requests and cooperated fully with these inquiries. The
Company’s subsidiaries received no further requests for such information during 2008.
30 THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY