Jim Romenesko reports over on Poynter an email from Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth that they’ve returned to profitability in 2010.
From that email:
That said, we accomplished a tremendous amount last year and have strong results to show for it. I committed to Don and to the Board that we would return to profitability by 2011. Excluding one-time costs, we returned to profitability in 2010 (rolled up into the newspaper division as our public reports are, the numbers will look different so I am talking about our internal operating numbers). That is no small feat. To some degree, our results are attributable to a better advertising climate. But in large part, it was due to strong performance on the expense side. It is our profits that allow us to invest in the journalism that we are so proud of and that our readers come to us for.
The full email details the Posts achievements both in journalism and how they controlled costs to become profitable.
For those of us with newspaper ink in our blood and have watched the industry these last three painful years, this is a bit of good news. Hopefully 2011 is much better for the industry as a whole.