Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and MarketWatch.com, reports higher revenue and earnings in the latest quarter, boosted by subscription revenue.
The company is part of News Corp., which breaks out Dow Jones’ performance in its earnings.
Dow Jones revenues in the quarter increased $31 million, or 6%, compared to the prior year, driven by higher circulation and subscription revenues from higher digital circulation revenues and continued growth in the professional information business.
Digital revenues at Dow Jones in the quarter represented 82% of total revenues compared to 81% in the prior year. Circulation and subscription revenues increased $33 million, or 7%, reflecting a 6% increase in professional information business revenues, led by 11% growth in Risk & Compliance revenues to $84 million and 10% growth in Dow Jones Energy revenues to $69 million.
Circulation revenues increased 7% compared to the prior year, primarily driven by the continued growth in digital-only subscriptions and the conversion of customers from introductory promotions to higher pricing, partly offset by lower print volume.
Digital circulation revenues accounted for 75% of circulation revenues for the quarter, compared to 70% in the prior year.
During the third quarter, total average subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products were 6.1 million, a 7% increase compared to the prior year. Digital-only subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products grew 9% to over 5.5 million.
Total subscriptions to The Journal grew 3% compared to the prior year, to over 4.3 million average subscriptions in the quarter. Digital-only subscriptions to The Journal grew 5% to over 3.9 million average subscriptions in the quarter, and represented 90% of total Journal subscriptions.
The full earnings release is here.
