Dow Jones reports increase in revenue, profits

Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and MarketWatch.com, reported a 19 percent increase in operating income and a 16 percent increase in revenue in the first quarter, but parent News Corp. missed analyst expectations on revenue.

Dow Jones reported operating income of $113 million, up from $95 million. It reported revenue of $515 million, up from $444 million.

Digital revenues at Dow Jones in the quarter represented 79% of total revenues compared to 75% in the prior year.

Circulation and subscription revenues increased $65 million, or 19 percent. Circulation revenue grew 5 percent, reflecting the continued strong growth in digital-only subscriptions at The Wall Street Journal.

During the first quarter, total average subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products reached over 4.9 million, an 8 percent increase compared to the prior year. Digital-only subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products grew 13 percent.

Total subscriptions to The Journal grew 8 percent compared to the prior year, to nearly 3.8 million average subscriptions in the quarter. Digital-only subscriptions to The Journal grew 13 percent to over 3.1 million average subscriptions in the quarter, and represented 84 percent of total Journal subscriptions.

The full release can be found here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.