Washington Post Co. Keeping Its Dividend

By: E&P Staff Nearly alone among publicly traded newspaper companies in continuing to pay a stock dividend, The Washington Post Co. on Thursday declared a regular quarterly dividend of $2.15 a share, payable Nov. 6 to shareholders of record on Oct. 26.

This latest declared dividend will pay at the same level as past regular quarterly dividends since January of 2008, when the dividend was increased to $2.15 a share from $2.05.

This year, nearly all publicly traded newspaper companies either stopped paying a dividend, as The New York Times Co. did, or slashed the payout to a nominal amount, as Gannett Co. Inc. did. The companies have said they would rather devote excess cash to paying down debt.

Several publishing companies, such as Lee Enterprises and The McClatchy Co., are prohibited from paying a dividend under terms of their renegotiated loan agreements.