Washington Post 2012 Annual Report Download - page 4

2012 was a banner year for two of our four major
businesses, Post–Newsweek Stations and Cable
ONE. The other two, The Washington Post and
Kaplan, recorded declining profits (the Post a
little, Kaplan a lot).
Each of our four businesses has had years of
being the Company’s most profitable. 2012 was a
runaway: Post–Newsweek Stations broke its all-
time record of profitability, making $191.6million
for the year.
OK, it was a presidential election year and an
Olympic year. (Our two largest stations, in Detroit
and Houston, are NBC aliates and air the
Olympics.) This added $63 million to revenue
($52 million in political advertising, $11million
for the Olympics).
But each Post–Newsweek station had a good
year: three (Detroit, San Antonio and Jacksonville)
led their markets in news, and the others came
out of 2012 with momentum.
It was a great last year for Alan Frank, PNS’s
12-year CEO. Alan inherited a broadcasting com-
pany in a strong position from his great prede-
cessor, Bill Ryan. He leaves an even stronger
company. And, he helped us find a successor,
Emily Barr, who should keep the streak of out-
standing management going for a long time.
Post–Newsweek Stations will, of course, have a
down year in profits in 2013 (no election). But
we should make considerably more than in
2011, the last non-election year.
Cable ONE has been a fast-changing business
for the past ten years. (It was an oasis of stabil-
ity before then—competition in every business
line will do that to you.)
Tom Might became CEO in 1994 and has seen
the cable company through several strate-
gic transitions. The current reality: ever-rising
charges from programmers and, especially, from
sports networks have taken most of the profit
out of cable’s original business, delivering video
service to our small-city markets. But we still
make a great business delivering the best Inter-
net and telephone services in our markets. As
these businesses mature, Cable ONE is lining
up significant new businesses to maintain its
momentum. Commercial sales just completed
its third year with high, double-digit growth,
and home security services will debut this year.
We’re also refocusing on our most valuable cus-
tomers (those who take more than one of our
products and pay on time) by giving them pre-
ferred service, support and oers.
Tom made one widely applauded change in
his management team late in the year, promot-
ing Julie Laulis to chief operating ocer of
Cable ONE. Julie’s a smart cable operator and
a great complement to Tom. They lead a deep
management team where Steve Fox, SVP/chief
technology ocer, remains a mainstay, along
with Jerry McKenna, SVP/chief sales and mar-
keting ocer.
Kaplan had a mixed year, but two-thirds of
its businesses are emphatically going in the
right direction. Kaplan Test Prep, the bedrock
of the company—founded 75 years ago by
Stanley Kaplan—has regained its footing. Its
losses shrank by $18 million, and we expect
positive cash flow this year. Our test prep
products continue to work well for students in
a new environment. John Polstein, KTP’s long-
time CEO, deserves a loud thank-you from
shareholders for reviving a good business.
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