Q3 revenue boom for Post-Newsweek Stations

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Television is a small part of The Washington Post Company, but revenues for the Post-Newsweek Stations shot up 29% in Q3. And here’s a surprise: The Washington Post also posted a gain in ad revenues.


We’re not kidding. The newspaper publishing division saw revenues increase 5% in Q3 to $163.4 million. Within that, print advertising revenues at The Washington Post were up 3% to $72 million. That was attributed to “an increase in general advertising,” the company said in its quarterly financial release. The Washington Post Company does not conduct quarterly conference calls with Wall Street analysts. The online business for the newspaper division was much stronger, up 21% to $27.2 million. That’s primarily from washingtonpost.com and Slate.

Television revenues were up 29% to $83.2 million and operating income gained 68% to $25.3 million. For the first nine months of the year TV revenues were up 24% to $239.3 million and operating income was up 83% to $76 million. “The increase in revenue and operating income is due to improved advertising demand in all markets and most product categories, particularly automotive. The increased revenue and operating income also includes $5.1 million in incremental winter Olympics-related advertising at the Company’s NBC affiliates in the first quarter of 2010, and a $9.0 million and $14.5 million increase in political advertising revenue for the third quarter and first nine months of 2010, respectively,” the company said.

Total revenues for The Washington Post Company were up 7% in Q3, due to increased revenues at the education, television broadcasting and newspaper publishing divisions, offset by a small decrease at the cable television division. Operating income increased 75% to $130.6 million.