Washington Post 2009 Annual Report Download - page 33

of these magazines includes editorial content created by a staff of local reporters and editors. Newsweek estimates that
the combined average weekly paid circulation of the various foreign-language international editions of Newsweek was
approximately 561,000 copies in 2009.
The online version of Newsweek includes material from Newsweek‘s print edition, as well as original content. Newsweek
assumed responsibility for producing Newsweek.com from WashingtonpostNewsweek Interactive Company, LLC
(“WPNI”) effective January 1, 2009. Newsweek.com maintains a content-sharing, co-branding and traffic relationship
with MSNBC.com that has evolved from a contractual relationship that was established in 2000.
Arthur Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine, another Newsweek publication, was published ten times during 2009 and
had an average paid circulation of more than 675,000 copies. Newsweek sold its Budget Travel operations, including
all assets and liabilities formerly reported as Newsweek Budget Travel, effective December 31, 2009.
Other Activities
Avenue100 Media Solutions Inc.
Avenue100 Media Solutions Inc. (“Avenue100”), formerly known as CourseAdvisor, Inc. is a digital marketing company
headquartered in Woburn, MA that sources leads for academic institutions and recruiting organizations. Avenue100
operates as an independent subsidiary of the Company.
Bowater Mersey Paper Company
The Company owns 49% of the common stock of Bowater Mersey Paper Company Limited (“Bowater Mersey”), the
majority interest in which is held by a subsidiary of AbitibiBowater, Inc. Bowater Mersey is engaged in the manufacture
and sale of newsprint and lumber, as well as the production of electricity in Nova Scotia, Canada.
Production and Raw Materials
The Washington Post and El Tiempo Latino are produced at the printing plant of WP Company in Fairfax County, VA.
The Herald, The Enterprise Newspapers, the SCBJ and La Raza del Noroeste are produced at The Daily Herald
Company’s plant in Everett, WA, while The Gazette Newspapers, Southern Maryland Newspapers,Express (since
March 30, 2009) and the Fairfax County Times are printed at the commercial printing facilities owned by Post–
Newsweek Media, Inc. Ten military papers, three free weeklies and one paid weekly from Southern Maryland are
printed at Chesapeake Publishing in Easton, MD. Greater Washington Publishing’s periodicals are produced by
independent contract printers. The Post closed its printing plant located in College Park, MD, in July of 2009.
In 2009, The Washington Post, Express and El Tiempo Latino consumed about 105,000 tons* of newsprint in WP
Company’s printing plants in Prince George’s County, MD and Fairfax County, VA. Printing of Express was transferred to
Post–Newsweek Media, Inc. in March 2009 and consumed an additional 3,778 tons. Such newsprint was purchased
from a number of suppliers, including AbitibiBowater, Inc., which supplied approximately 33% of the 2009 newsprint
requirements for these newspapers.
The price of newsprint has historically been volatile. The RISI East Coast Newsprint Price Index, which provides monthly
single-price estimates based on marketplace surveys of both buyers and sellers, for 30-lb. newsprint (the kind of newsprint
used by The Washington Post and most of the newspapers published by Post–Newsweek Media, Inc.), began 2009 at
$694 per short ton, declined to $395 by August and rebounded to $481 by year-end. From December 2009 through
January 2010, The Washington Post transitioned from 30-lb. newsprint to 27.7-lb newsprint. (Because of quantity
discounts and other factors, the RISI index prices do not necessarily correspond with the prices actually paid for newsprint
by the Company’s subsidiaries.) The Company believes that adequate supplies of newsprint are available to The
Washington Post and the other newspapers published by the Company’s subsidiaries through contracts with various
suppliers. More than 90% of the newsprint consumed by WP Company’s printing plant includes recycled content. The
Company owns 80% of the stock of Capitol Fiber Inc., which handles and sells to recycling industries old newspapers,
paper and other recyclable materials collected in Washington, DC, Maryland and northern Virginia.
Newsweek‘s domestic edition is produced by two independent contract printers at four 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, the Netherlands, South Africa and Hong
Kong. Since 1997, Newsweek and a subsidiary of Time Warner have used a jointly owned company based in England
to provide and procure production and distribution services for the Europe, Middle East and Africa edition of Newsweek
and the Europe edition of Time. In 2002, this jointly owned company began providing certain production and distribution
services for the Asia editions of these magazines.
2009 FORM 10-K 19