Diversified publisher McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. (MHP), first discussed here on December 8, 2010 at a price of $36, remains a short play with potential.

McGraw will likely to face a challenging 2011. McGraw-Hill's education segment will face an increasing sluggish textbook market, as public school systems -- particularly those in poorer U.S. school districts K-12 -- continue to belt-tighten in every way possible, due to state and local budget cutbacks. Translation: use existing textbooks longer, and increase use of the used-book market.

Textbooks prices are sky high. New editions come out seemingly every year, making the previous edition obsolete. So-called textbook customization destroys the used textbook market and students are refusing to purchase all the required course material. If McGraw Hill Companies Inc. (NYSE: MHP) were still just publishing textbooks, it would be in big trouble. But McGraw Hill is moving away from its reliance on textbooks, and into financial information and services where costs are lower and profit margins higher. The stock looks increasingly attractive. Its P/E multiple is just above the industry average while its EPS is 50% above industry average. Don't judge this book only by its cover. The stock began the year trading at $67.09, and closed June 11 at $70.02, up $0.57.

McGraw Hill Companies reported quite respectable 1Q 2007 earnings on April 24. Overall, revenue for the quarter was up 13.7% to $1.3 billion, while net income for the quarter was $143.8 million and diluted EPS doubled to $0.40. Results, however, were not unifrom across the companies' three major business units. Textbook segment revenue increased 5.6% to $331.7 million. That's a lot of accounting textbooks. Nevertheless, this segment continued to operate at a loss of $90.7 million. K-12 education revenue declined 1.2% despite encouraging big book order potential from Texas, California, Tennessee and Indiana. College textbook revenues were up 11.5% to $187 million, helped by large textbook orders for the second semester.