The 2 Percent Solution

Finally, a little good news for at least one media company: The Washington Post Company reported a two percent revenue growth in its third-quarter earnings announcement today. Its net income was also up 69 percent over this time last year.

The company owns the flagship newspaper and some smaller publications, Cable One, Newseek, the education company Kaplan, and websites like Slate, The Root, The Big Money, and Double X.

According to Andrew Vanacore of the Associated Press, some of that revenue was achieved by "slashing expenses."

Per Vanacore: "The newspaper division, which includes the Post, The Daily Herald in Everett, Washington, and dozens of local weeklies, whittled its operating losses through buyouts and cost cutting to $23.6 million, down from $82.7 million a year ago."

In March, Politico's Michael Calderone posted memos from the Post's publisher, Katharine Weymouth, and executive editor, Marcus Brauchli, laying out what they called "the Voluntary Retirement Incentive Program" to all employees over 50. (Why call something a "buyout" when a slightly menacing name like "VRIP" will do?)

"This VRIP will allow us to offer eligible employees the opportunity to retire with enhanced benefits and, at the same time, provide us with an important opportunity to restructure our business and reduce our costs without losing focus on our first mission: to publish best-in-class journalism and compelling content for our readers," Weymouth wrote to her staff.

In 2008, 231 people accepted buyouts, which cost the Post Company $79.8 million, according to the Post's Frank Ahrens. As Ahern reported at the time, Post chairman Donald E. Graham said the paper would lose "substantial money" in 2009.

Graham further stated, "Post management knows that losses must diminish in 2010."

You and everybody else, Don.