More than a week after other major newspaper companies announced second-quarter earnings, The Washington Post Co. reported Friday morning that they, too, had managed to turn a profit. The New York Times Co., McClatchy, Gannett and Media General all posted second quarter gains last week, sparking optimism among an industry mired in debt and suffering from decreased ad revenue.
But the Post, unlike the other companies, has not increased their profit at the expense of staff cuts — instead, the company has been buoyed by their other business investments, including Newsweek Magazine and Kaplan education services, which has recorded a 13 percent revenue increase.
Unless the Post puts their web content behind a pay wall, these confident students should easily be able to read online news when the paper disappears.
Planning for future readers by building good will as outlined by Sydney instead of only watching today’s bottom line is sound thinking.