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How much revenue did the Washington Post generate in 2015 and 2016? How much came via digital advertising?
Hello! Thanks for your question about the Washington Post's revenue in 2015 and 2016 and how much came from digital advertising. The short version is that after searching extensively through company reports, financial statements, databases containing company profiles, and trusted industry news sources, I have determined that the information you requested is not publicly available. This is because the Washington Post is privately owned and no longer releases financial details. However, I was able to learn that their revenue from digital advertising has increased as well as some revenue estimates. Below you will find a deep dive of my research and methodology.
METHODOLOGY
To complete this request, I first searched business databases that profile companies such as Hoover's and Bloomberg's to determine revenue. I discovered that the newspaper was sold to Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos in 2013, and now operates under the company name, WP Company LLC, a subsidiary of Nash Holdings LLC. After first checking for SEC filings in EDGAR, I can confirm that because it is privately owned, it no longer releases detailed financial results.
I then searched Owler, which provides revenue estimates for companies and found an estimate for the Washington Post at $709 million. Please note, this information is not confirmed by WP Company LLC or Nash Holdings LLC. Finally, I searched trusted media sources where I found several Washington Post internal memos that referred to the growth in digital advertising revenues, but gave no specific figures.
I also turned to our network of Wonder Analysts to determine if there was another method to find revenue, however, given that no financial figures have been released, we determined that a valid and reliable calculation would not be possible.
HELPFUL FINDINGS
ANNUAL REVENUE
I found another estimate from news sources that conflicted with the Owler revenue estimate of $709 million. Based on an estimate from a former Washington Post executive, in 2016 the New York Magazine reported an estimate of annual revenue to be $350 million. This is a significant fall in revenue from the $580 million given when revenue was last reported in 2012.
DIGITAL ADVERTISING REVENUE
A leaked end of year memo released in 2016 by Washington Post publisher, Fred Ryan, highlighted that revenue from digital ads in 2016 increased 40% from 2015. Digital subscription revenue had also doubled in the past 12 months, and digital traffic was 50% higher than in 2015.
Another 2016 internal memo from chief revenue officer, Jed Hartman stated that the Post’s annual digital ad revenue is a “nine-figure” business, which conflicts with the $60 million that the New York Magazine estimated in the previously mentioned article. Hartman also wrote that the biggest increase was in native advertising that increased by 275%. The memo also stated that in 2015 the Post exceeded their ad revenue budget by 3.5% and grew digital revenue 17.4% and that their biggest growth was in digital ad sales which grew 48% through to August 2016.
Because you want to use this information for a competitive analysis, you may be interested to know that The New York Times, (often referred to as the Washington Post's main competitor) had a digital advertising revenue of $209 million in 2016 (an increase of 6% from 2015).
In 2016, the Washington Post also started selling technology related to digital advertising. The Post launched software that rapidly reduces load times for mobile display ads and also reformats video ads for vertical phone screens.
DIGITAL ADVERTISING MARKET SIZE
On a more general level, it also may be of interest to you that the US digital advertising market is expected to continue to grow at a healthy rate through to 2021 to reach nearly $100 billion in annual revenue.
In understanding what types of information are and are not publicly available about the Washington Post's revenues, and given that the market size for digital advertising is expected to increase and you are interested in a competitor analysis. You may be interested in looking more broadly into:
- comparing metrics such as visitors average time on site, most commonly used platforms, digital subscriber numbers, and the number of unique website visitors for The Post and its competitors.
- how the digital advertising market is segmented
- top companies dominating the digital advertising market and how much they account for overall revenue from digital advertising.
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SUMMARY
To wrap it up, after searching extensively through corporate websites, financial statements, industry reports, and trusted media sites, a direct answer to your question is not publicly available. This is because the Washington Post is privately owned and no longer releases financial details. However, I did come across some estimates and information from leaked internal memos related to Washington Post revenues, which I have provided.
If you’d like to continue research on any of the other topics I’ve outlined above, just let us know! Thanks for using Wonder!