Much media coverage in past months has focused on the decline in the share price of major American newspaper companies. Of the 10 biggest groups, the Washington Post’s decline has been tempered because of its ownership of Kaplan. So that makes today’s news about Pearson’s purchase of educational companies in China most relevant. Pearson is buying 80 per cent of the Learning Education Center in Shanghai and half of the Dell chain of English language schools, based mostly in Beijing. The news story quotes CEO Marjorie Scardino: “It is a market where public and private spending on education is growing rapidly, where parents see that English language proficiency is central to their children’s success and adults see that English greatly improves their job prospects in the global economy.”