Dow Jones, operator of WSJ, Barron’s reports strong third quarter

Dow Jones & Co., the operator of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and MarketWatch.com, reported a 16 percent increase in third quarter revenue and a 7 percent increase in third quarter earnings on Thursday.

Dow Jones is owned by News Corp., which reported its overall earnings.

Its revenue rose to $487 million in the third quarter ended March 31 from revenue of $421 million in the same quarter a year ago. EBITDA earnings rose to $88 million in the third quarter, up from EBITDA earnings of $82 million in the third quarter that ended March 31, 2021.

Revenue rose due to the the acquisitions of Investor’s Business Daily and the Oil Price Information Services business and related assets. The OPIS acquisition closed on Feb. 28, 2022.

Adjusted revenues at Dow Jones rose  9 percent compared to the prior year, primarily due to the growth in circulation and subscription revenues from continued digital subscription gains and higher advertising revenues.

Digital revenues at Dow Jones in the quarter represented 76 percent of total revenues compared to 74 percent in the prior year.

Digital circulation revenues accounted for 68 percent of circulation revenues for the quarter, compared to 64 percent in the prior year.

During the third quarter, total average subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products reached over 4.8 million, a 14 percent increase compared to the prior year, and includes 122,000 Investor’s Business Daily subscriptions, the majority being digital-only. Digital-only subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products grew 19 percent.

Total subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal grew 10 percent compared to the prior year, to over 3.7 million average subscriptions in the quarter. Digital-only subscriptions to The Journal grew 16 percent to over 3 million average subscriptions in the quarter, and represented 82 percent of total Journal subscriptions.

The release can be found here.