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How will the voluntary buyouts announced by The Post this week — the fifth such round in the past nine years — affect the quality of the publication?

The Washington Post Co. on Friday reported a 50 percent drop in second-quarter earnings, with revenue continuing to plummet in the Kaplan Higher Education Unit and both the online and print operations of the newspaper division seeing declines in advertising revenue. Overall profits for the quarter that ended July 3 totaled $45.6 million ($5.74 per share), the company said, compared with $91.9 million ($10.00 per share) a year earlier. Revenue increased at The Post Co.’s television broadcasting and cable television divisions.

The Washington Post is closing its last U.S. bureaus outside the nation's capital as the money-losing newspaper retrenches to focus on politics and local news.

A plan to bring editors and lobbyists to the publisher’s home brought a critical reaction from the newsroom.

Washington Post Co plans to offer a new round of buyouts in 2009 to employees at its namesake, money-losing newspaper and cannot rule out layoffs, its publisher said on Thursday.

The Washington Post plans to fold its business news coverage into the main news section, making it the latest newspaper to reorganize in difficult times for print media.