{"id":88871,"date":"2013-08-07T16:39:51","date_gmt":"2013-08-07T21:39:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2013\/08\/07\/the-washington-post-by-the-numbers\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:15:43","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:15:43","slug":"the-washington-post-by-the-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2013\/08\/07\/the-washington-post-by-the-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"The Washington Post: By The Numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On August 5, The Washington Post, which had been owned by the Graham family for 80 years, was sold to the billionaire founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos for $250 million in cash. Along with The Post, Bezos also bought the free tabloid, The Express, the weekly Spanish-language newspaper El Tiempo Latino, The Gazette chain of community newspapers, Southern Maryland Newspapers and Fairfax County Times. The Post\u2019s online properties\u2014including Slate, Foreign Policy and TheRoot.com\u2014were not sold.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In recent years, like many large U.S. metro dailies, The Post has been deeply affected by the economic ills besetting the newspaper industry. The numbers below help tell that story.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Finances<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The company reported losing $49 million for the first half of 2013 on its newspaper operations, generating $138.4 million in revenue in the second quarter of the year. Of that loss, about $40 million was a pension expense, so the company lost about $9 million on operations.<\/li>\n<li>The losses in the first half of 2013 come after the company reported a $53.7 million loss in 2012, a $21.2 million loss in 2011, a $9.8 million loss in 2010 and a $163.5 million loss in 2009. In addition, in the past six years, overall operating revenue at The Washington Post\u2019s newspaper holdings fell by 44%.<\/li>\n<li>The Washington Post Company\u2019s market value is $4.2 billion, which includes its education business, including Kaplan Inc., and its television holdings. Of the company\u2019s overall revenue in 2012, 14% came from newspaper publishing. Over half, 55%, was from education (Kaplan), 20% was from cable television, 10% was from television broadcasting and the remaining 1% was from other businesses. After the Bezos deal, the Graham family retains ownership of the educational and television businesses.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Circulation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The average weekday circulation for the 52 weeks ending September 30, 2012 was 484,385, a decrease of 8.4% from the same period the year before. A few years earlier, in 2010, the circulation was over the half million mark at 562,108. The paper\u2019s circulation peaked in 1993 at 832,332.<\/li>\n<li>Sunday circulation, a more lucrative area where some newspapers have seen growth recently, has also been declining. In the same 52-week period ending in the fall of 2012, Sunday circulation was 696,589, a 5.7% drop from the year before. At The Post\u2019s peak in 1993, Sunday circulation averaged over a million\u20141,152,272.<\/li>\n<li>TheWashington Post\u2019s combined market reach\u2014measured by the number of people who read a print edition at least one day a week plus the number accessing that newspaper\u2019s website at least once a week\u2014was 56% for the 26 weeks ending March 31, 2013. That represents a slight decrease\u2014from 59%\u2014for the same period the year before.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Note:<\/strong>\u00a0These data were compiled from earnings reports from the Washington Post Co., Alliance for Audited Media reports, and various media accounts.<\/p>\n\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.pewresearch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/13\/legacy\/u36\/downward_trajectory_0.png\" width=\"484\" height=\"375\"><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On August 5, The Washington Post, which had been owned by the Graham family for 80 years, was sold to the billionaire founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos for $250 million in cash. Along with The Post, Bezos also bought the free tabloid, The Express, the weekly Spanish-language newspaper El Tiempo Latino, The Gazette chain of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_api_pending":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_hidden":false,"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[],"tags":[],"bylines":[],"collection":[],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[527],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-88871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","formats-report","research-teams-journalism"],"label":false,"post_parent":88889,"word_count":434,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2013\/08\/07\/the-washington-post-by-the-numbers\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[{"id":88889,"title":"What\u2019s Behind The Washington Post Sale","slug":"whats-behind-the-washington-post-sale","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2013\/08\/07\/whats-behind-the-washington-post-sale\/","is_active":false},{"id":88879,"title":"The Newspaper Industry Overall","slug":"the-newspaper-industry-overall","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2013\/08\/07\/the-newspaper-industry-overall\/","is_active":false},{"id":88871,"title":"The Washington Post: By The Numbers","slug":"the-washington-post-by-the-numbers","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2013\/08\/07\/the-washington-post-by-the-numbers\/","is_active":true},{"id":88859,"title":"Historic Deals of Major U.S. Newspaper Companies","slug":"historic-deals-of-major-u-s-newspaper-companies","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2013\/08\/07\/historic-deals-of-major-u-s-newspaper-companies\/","is_active":false}],"report_materials":"","report_pagination":{"current_post":{"id":88871,"title":"The Washington Post: By The Numbers","slug":"the-washington-post-by-the-numbers","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2013\/08\/07\/the-washington-post-by-the-numbers\/","is_active":true,"page_num":3},"next_post":{"id":88859,"title":"Historic Deals of Major U.S. Newspaper Companies","slug":"historic-deals-of-major-u-s-newspaper-companies","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2013\/08\/07\/historic-deals-of-major-u-s-newspaper-companies\/","is_active":false,"page_num":4},"previous_post":{"id":88879,"title":"The Newspaper Industry Overall","slug":"the-newspaper-industry-overall","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2013\/08\/07\/the-newspaper-industry-overall\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2},"pagination_items":[{"id":88889,"title":"What\u2019s Behind The Washington Post Sale","slug":"whats-behind-the-washington-post-sale","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2013\/08\/07\/whats-behind-the-washington-post-sale\/","is_active":false,"page_num":1},{"id":88879,"title":"The Newspaper Industry Overall","slug":"the-newspaper-industry-overall","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2013\/08\/07\/the-newspaper-industry-overall\/","is_active":false,"page_num":2},{"id":88871,"title":"The Washington Post: By The Numbers","slug":"the-washington-post-by-the-numbers","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2013\/08\/07\/the-washington-post-by-the-numbers\/","is_active":true,"page_num":3},{"id":88859,"title":"Historic Deals of Major U.S. Newspaper Companies","slug":"historic-deals-of-major-u-s-newspaper-companies","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/journalism\/2013\/08\/07\/historic-deals-of-major-u-s-newspaper-companies\/","is_active":false,"page_num":4}]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"What\u2019s Behind The Washington Post Sale","parent_id":88889},"materialsOrdered":[],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"The Washington Post: By The Numbers","description":"On August 5, The Washington Post, which had been owned by the Graham family for 80 years, was sold to the billionaire founder of Amazon.com, Jeff Bezos for $250 million&hellip;","og_title":"The Washington Post: By The Numbers","og_description":"","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":0,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{"prc-image-alt-text":{"status":"incomplete","message":"1 image is missing alt text.","data":{"count":1}},"prc-about-this-research":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add an \"About this research\" details block.","data":null},"prc-paragraph-count":{"status":"complete","message":"Found 5 paragraphs.","data":{"count":5}},"prc-internal-link":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add at least one internal link.","data":{"count":0}}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88871"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135199,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88871\/revisions\/135199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88871"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=88871"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=88871"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=88871"},{"taxonomy":"level_of_effort","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/level_of_effort?post=88871"},{"taxonomy":"primary_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary_audience?post=88871"},{"taxonomy":"information_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/information_type?post=88871"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=88871"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=88871"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=88871"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=88871"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=88871"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=88871"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=88871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}