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42015 ANNUAL REPORT
CEO Tom Might navigated the spin-o with his
typical deft and straightforward manner. He has
continued to do a splendid job at Cable ONE,
looking increasingly smart for his understanding
of the future of video in the cable industry. Tom
deserves an enormous thank you on behalf of all
Graham Holdings shareholders.
As part of the spin-o, we received a dividend of
$450 million. This was roughly equivalent to the tax
basis of Cable ONE and provides us with incremental
capital to continue to re-shape our business.
The financial powerhouse for GHC in 2015 was our
TV station business, Graham Media Group, led by
Emily Barr. The results she puts forward simply amaze
me. Emily seems to have forgotten that in 2014, we
traded a TV station to Berkshire Hathaway, as part
of a broader transaction in which we repurchased a
significant block of our own stock. Her results from
five stations now rival many years of results from six
stations! The station managers collectively deserve a
round of applause, with the performance of KPRC in
Houston, led by Jerry Martin, getting the final bow.
GMG continues to explore original local program-
ming, as well as improved mobile experiences for
local news. Initial progress on both initiatives shows
real promise. The team at WDIV, led by Marla Drutz,
has become the number one broadcast online news
source with www.clickondetroit.com, which is a leader
in online local news in Detroit. News4Jax.com, the
online companion to our highly successful local
television station, WJXT in Jacksonville, is led by
Bob Ellis and is the clear leader in online local news
with more users than any other Jacksonville print or
broadcast outlet.
Kaplan had a year of tremendous change, some
expected and some less so. In September of this
year, Kaplan closed a transaction with Education
Corporation of America to sell our Higher
Education vocational campuses. (We continue to
operate Kaplan University, which has 14 campuses
and one learning center but serves the majority of its
students online.) The time from deal announcement
to close (7 months) speaks to the complexity of
such a transaction, both in terms of operations and
regulatory approvals. In fact, it was one of the very
few transactions of any scale that has occurred in
the domestic private-sector higher education space
in the past 5 years. I’d like to thank Matt Seelye and
Jerry Dervin, finance chiefs of Kaplan and Kaplan’s
higher education business, for their tireless eorts in
guiding this sale to a successful conclusion.
Another big change at Kaplan in 2015 was the return
of Andy Rosen as CEO. Andy had spent much of the
past 2 years as Chairman of Kaplan, as well as helping
oversee several businesses from the Graham Holdings
corporate oce. It became clear that Kaplan needed
to move to a more decentralized operating structure,
to increase profitability and set the stage for a return
the fInancIal poWerhouse for ghc
In 2015 Was our tv statIon busIness,
graham medIa group, led by emIly
barr. the results she puts forWard
sImply amaze me.