• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, May 9, 2011

The Washington Post Co. reported that total revenues declined 7% from the first quarter to $1.06 billion from the previous year. This ws due mostly to new troubles affecting the company's lucrative Kaplan educational business, along with ad revenue declines at the flagship newspaper and broadcast TV divisions.

Print advertising revenues at The Washington Post fell 8% from $69 million to $63 million. This loss was offset somewhat by an 8% gain in digital ad revenues, from $24 million to $26 million. Total newspaper division revenues were basically flat, with a small decline from $155.8 million to $155 million.

The company's broadcast TV division also saw ad revenues decline -- with a 2% drop from $73.5 million to $72.2 million -- attributing the decrease to the lack of political and Olympic advertising this year. WaPo's cable division revenues, which depend on subscribers, were basically flat at $190 million.

As noted, the main area of loss for the company was the Kaplan educational division, which provides test prep services for aspiring college students, professionals and grad students. Total revenue at the education division dropped 10% from $711 million to $641 million, reflecting a 48% decline in overall enrollment.

In recent years, Kaplan (acquired in 1984) has become the mainstay of WaPo's financial well-being.

In 2010, the education division contributed $2.9 billion or 62% of a total $4.7 billion in revenues for the company, compared with $680 million (14.5%) from the newspaper division. Over the last five years, the education division's revenues have increased 107% from $1.4 billion (39.4% of a total $3.55 billion) in 2005, while newspaper revenues declined 29% from $957 million (27% of the total) over the same period.

However, in the wake of the credit collapse that began in 2008, Congress has moved to tighten restrictions on how government student loans can be spent -- specifically targeting private, for-profit test prep services like Kaplan. The result has been a sharp decrease in the number of students paying for test prep services with federal loans.