S&P lowers Washington Post

Standard & Poor's said it lowered the corporate credit rating and senior unsecured issue-level rating on Washington Post Co. to BBB from BBB+.

The agency also said it lowered the short-term and commercial-paper rating on the company to A-3 from A-2.

The ratings also were removed from CreditWatch, where they were placed with negative implications in August.

The outlook is negative.

The downgrade reflects risks that the company's operating performance and discretionary cash flow will remain depressed as a result of more restrictive regulation of for-profit education businesses, S&P said, as well as an expectation that continued declines in newspaper advertising revenues will outweigh the company's cost-reduction measures.

The company has experienced sharply negative year-over-year trends in student enrollment and profitability since 2010 as a result of U.S. Department of Education regulations that significantly tighten marketing practices, the agency said.

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