Robert Thomson, the CEO of News Corp., the parent of Wall Street Journal owner Dow Jones & Co., made the following comment on its third quarter earnings conference call when asked about subscription revenue growth:
Yeah, look, you’re exactly right in placing our strategy at Dow Jones, and total-subs were 7% higher, driven by digital-subs, which rose 14%. And we are very focused on average revenue per subscriber and seeing positive trends, as the Dow Jones dynamic pricing strategy is unfolding.
I mean, that trend itself was reflected in the overall 7% increase in circulation revenues, which were up from a 3% increase in the previous quarter. Now, the Dow Jones team is rather confident that the phasing of subscribers from discounted entry-level offers to more standard pricing is proceeding well, and that strategy will be reflected in the digital numbers in coming quarters.
And, by the way, in total at Dow Jones, our digital contributed to 82% of revenue. So we are talking about a company that’s certainly contemporary in character and a powerful digital platform on which to build.
To read the full transcript, go here.
