Washington Post Earnings Drop 85 Percent (Good News)

NewsBusters.org ^ | May 3, 2013 | Paul Bremmer

[Kaslin]

Politico reported today that net income at The Washington Post Co. dropped an astonishing 85 percent from the first quarter of last year to the first quarter of this year. The newspaper division posted an operating loss of $34.5 million over that period.

It looks as if the Post, like many other newspapers around the country, may have entered an age of decline. Newspapers just aren’t as profitable as they once were. The proliferation of online news outlets has given consumers a plethora of free news sources to choose from. But another factor may be the Post's persistent liberal bias, which is a turnoff to potential conservative subscribers.

Here at NewsBusters, we have written a lot about the Washington Post over the years. It has been a reliable source of liberal slant, giving us something to rail against every week. Take their treatment of conservative blogger Jennifer Rubin, for example. Rubin has criticized both conservatives and liberals in her blogs, but the Post editors have a tendency to print her conservative-bashing blogs while ignoring her pieces that criticize Democrats or liberals.

Of course, this is because the Post loves Democrats and liberals. When President Obama cancelled White House tours to try and make Americans scared of the sequester, the Post cheered his decision. They called it a “civics lesson” that helped the administration show the sequester’s pain. Never mind that the tour cancellations were completely unnecessary.

Like most mainstream media outlets, the Post vigorously advocated for gay marriage ahead of the Supreme Court hearings on the matter back in March. Post blogger Chris Cillizza went so far as to declare the debate over and social conservatives defeated before the court had even heard the cases.

The paper has been willing to excuse the sad state of D.C’s welfare system as well. Last month, when the Washington Examiner reported that most of the city’s welfare recipients don’t look for work, the Post remained silent on the issue. Why should residents of the D.C. area pay for a subscription when the paper is asleep at the switch on local stories like that?!

The Post also bows to the altar of political correctness. After the recent bombings in Boston, the paper ran a psychoanalytical piece that turned attention away from the Tsarnaev murderers and onto supposedly Islamophobic Americans.

Perhaps the Post should consider that its consistent left-wing bias is turning off readers and contributing to the paper’s decline.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Maybe lose all their current advertisers, but get a whole bunch of new ones. It would be the “Rush Limbaugh effect”, otherwise known as “nothing succeeds like success”.

If they sell a lot more newspapers, the advertisers will come.

However, you are right that the Graham family that controls the company would likely never sell to a conservative.

[junta]

Buggy whip enterprises that operate on the business model of catering to a declining customer base, aging white liberals with a guilt complex. The Chicago Trib is a POS outfit (a few good writers) that basically had as its model to call its customer base “racist” and only succeeded in driving away customers.

[GOPJ]

Another one for the Koch brothers to buy.

Maybe it'd be cheaper for the Koch brothers to wait for the Post to go under - then do a first rate conservative start-up. Tell 'old subscribers' they can get the paper free for 6 weeks - probably cheaper than buying the Posts' subscription list... Why buy something's that's been run into the ground - with all the baggage, liberal employees, and liabilities?

First question to the Washington Post? How many people get the paper for free. How many 'vanity' subscriptions... What percent of ads are radically discounted? Each subscription counts for exactly how many readers?

[EDINVA]

When the LA Times goes conservative and starts turning a profit - AND’s running conservative news - liberals will “When the LA Times goes conservative and starts turning a profit .... liberals will wake up to how they’ve treated us.”

Doesn’t work like that. Note that the Hollywood movies that make money are conservative. Has that caused Hollywood to make more clean, conservative movies? Advancing the agenda is the motivator, not whether people choose to consume the product.