Based on the aggregated intelligence of 125,000-plus investors participating in Motley Fool CAPS, the Fool's free investing community, media and education company Washington Post (NYSE:WPO) has received a distressing two-star ranking.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Washington Post's business and see what CAPS investors are saying about the stock right now.

Washington Post facts

Headquarters (founded)

Washington, D.C. (1877)

Market Cap

$3.50 billion

Industry

Publishing

TTM Revenue

$4.42 billion

Management

Chairman/CEO Donald Graham

Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli

Return on Equity (average, last five years and TTM)

10.8% and 3.9%

Competitors

New York Times (NYSE:NYT),

Gannett (NYSE:GCI),

Time Warner (NYSE:TWX)

CAPS members bearish on WPO also bearish on

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ)

CAPS members bullish on WPO also bullish on

Sears Holdings (NASDAQ:SHLD),

General Motors (NYSE:GM)

Sources: Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's, and Motley Fool CAPS. TTM = trailing 12 months.

Over on CAPS, fully 27 of the 62 All-Star members who have rated Washington Post -- some 44% -- believe the stock will underperform the S&P 500 going forward. These bears include srk85, who is ranked in the top 10% of our community, and greenwave3.

In December, srk85 posted this gloomy view of The Post: "The newspaper industry is in secular decline. PE in the high 20s has nothing near the type of growth expectations necessary to sustain it."

In a pitch from late last month, greenwave3 even showed concern for the company's schooling side:

Kaplan is the only star, and I expect that segment to be down considerably in the near term. An oversupply of unemployed professionals will not encourage more of today's graduating college students to attend graduate and professional schools, which will significantly impair growth in this division for the foreseeable future.
All other holdings are slumping media businesses. Buy at your own peril.

What do you think about Washington Post, or any other stock for that matter? Make your voice heard on Motley Fool CAPS today. More than 125,000 investors are waiting to hear what you have to say. CAPS is 100% free, so simply click here to get started.