By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post
WASHINGTON – Washington Post Co. earnings fell 77 percent in the fourth quarter of last year compared with the same period in 2007, as large impairment charges drove down net income.

The Post Co. yesterday reported fourth-quarter net income of $18.8 million ($2.01 per share) on revenue of $1.16 billion, compared with net income of $82.9 million ($8.71) on revenue of $1.13 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007.

The company’s newspaper division, which includes the flagship Washington Post, reported a $14.4 million operating loss for the fourth quarter and a $192.7 million operating loss for all of 2008, 41 percent of which came from the cost of early-retirement packages taken by 231 Post employees. In the second quarter of 2008, the charge dragged The Post Co. into the red for the first time in its 37-year history as a publicly traded company.
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