Washington Post 2009 Annual Report Download - page 32

policy is too subjective to guide broadcasters’ programming decisions and that its enforcement approach otherwise
violates the First Amendment.
The U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision during 2009 in which it reversed a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Second Circuit. The Second Circuit decision had held that the FCC violated its procedural obligations when it found
that certain television stations’ broadcast of so-called “fleeting expletives” was indecent. Neither court ruled on whether
the FCC’s indecency policy was constitutional, however, and that question now is pending before the Second Circuit.
It is not generally the FCC’s policy to notify licensees when it receives indecency complaints regarding their broadcasts
before it issues a formal Letter of Inquiry or takes other enforcement action. As a result, the FCC may have received
complaints of which PNS is not aware alleging that one or more of its stations broadcast indecent material. PNS was
notified on January 25, 2008, that the FCC had proposed a monetary forfeiture against station KSAT, along with 51
other television stations, in connection with the station’s broadcast of an allegedly indecent scene in an episode of the
drama “NYPD Blue.” KSAT, along with the other affected ABC affiliates, has appealed the FCC’s decision. The case is
pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Sponsorship Identification. During 2006 and 2007, a media watchdog group filed a series of complaints at the FCC
alleging that various broadcast stations and cable channels had violated the FCC’s sponsorship identification rules by
broadcasting material provided to them by a third party without disclosing the source of the material. The FCC issued
Letters of Inquiry to three PNS stations that had been named in the complaints. Specifically, WJXT was named in the first
complaint, along with 76 other broadcast stations, and WKMG and WPLG were named in the second complaint, along
with 44 other stations. The FCC has not proposed any enforcement action against these stations.
In September 2007, however, the FCC released two decisions involving news telecasts by a cable operator identified in
the same set of complaints. In these decisions, the FCC purported to expand the scope of its sponsorship identification
rules in the context of news broadcasts. These decisions do not directly affect PNS, but they are relevant because the
FCC typically uses similar standards to evaluate alleged sponsorship identification violations by broadcast stations and
cable operators. The FCC’s investigations concerning the three PNS stations are pending. It is not possible to predict
what further actions, if any, the FCC may take in response to the complaints.
The FCC is conducting proceedings concerning various matters in addition to those described in this section. The outcome
of these FCC proceedings and other matters described in this section could adversely affect the profitability of PNS’s
television broadcasting operations.
Magazine Publishing
Newsweek, Inc.
Newsweek, Inc. (“Newsweek”) publishes Newsweek, a weekly global forward-looking news and ideas magazine and
its digital platform, Newsweek.com.Newsweek is published domestically and internationally. The domestic edition of
Newsweek includes more than 100 different geographic or demographic editions that carry substantially identical news
and feature material, but enable advertisers to direct messages to specific market areas or demographic groups.
Newsweek is sold through subscription mail order sales derived from a number of sources, principally direct-mail
promotion, as well as online and on newsstands. Newsweek‘s published advertising rates are based on its average
weekly circulation rate base and are competitive with those of the other publications in its category. Newsweek
reaffirmed its plans to reduce its domestic rate base to 1,500,000 copies in the first quarter of 2010, reflecting a shift in
focus to a different demographic that is closer to its core base of loyal subscribers. This demographic consists of a group
of subscribers who are highly educated, who have demonstrated a high level of interest in news and ideas and who
have higher incomes. This will change Newsweek’s competitive set, making it the largest premium news and ideas
magazine, aligned more closely with The Economist,New York magazine, New Yorker,Wired, BusinessWeek and The
Atlantic. In 2009, Newsweek, Inc. increased the subscription price of Newsweek and its national advertising rates to
reflect a more valuable subscriber base.
Internationally, Newsweek is published in English in a Europe, Middle East and Africa edition; an Asia edition covering
Japan, Korea and south Asia; and a Latin America edition. Editorial copy solely of domestic interest is eliminated in the
international editions and is replaced by other international, business or national coverage primarily of interest abroad.
Newsweek estimates that the combined average weekly paid circulation for these English-language international editions
of Newsweek in 2009 was approximately 460,000 copies.
Newsweek has agreements with publishers in a number of foreign countries to produce and distribute local-language
editions of Newsweek abroad. Currently, Newsweek is published in Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Arabic, Polish, Russian
and Turkish. In addition to containing selected stories translated from Newsweek‘s various U.S. and foreign editions, each
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