Can for-profit education save the free press?

The Washington Post Company has just released its 2008 earnings report.  The Washington Post and Newsweek, like most other print media, are having financial difficulties under the two pronged attack of the digital revolution and the severe downturn in the economy.  The two had an operating loss of about $212 M in 2008, compared to an operating income of about $190M in 2007 .  The television broadcasting division also saw decreasing operating income (-13%), but still had a substantial positive contribution of  $123M to the company’s bottom line. On the traditional communications business side of the leger, the big winner was the cable television division, which achieved an operating income of $162M, or a 31% increase above 2007.

The most profitable and fastest growing division of the Washington Post Company was its division that has little to do with communication in the traditional sense - Kaplan.  Kaplan’s operating income was $206M, up 38% from 2007.  Education almost covered the loses of the company’s flagship print divisions!  

Unfortunately, the print divisions are losing ground faster than the education division can grow, so this rough balance is unlikely to persist unless the print divisions can make a major turn-around.  Thus, the answer to the question of the title of this post is probably “no”, at least insofar as the question relates to the Washington Post Company. However, the Kaplan division is obviously going to be a major component of the Company’s attempts to find a solution to its problems. 

The other information that can be gleaned from this is that at least one company in the for-profit education field is growing rapidly in these difficult times. Maybe every corporation should have a for-profit education arm?