Shar named president of Investor’s Business Daily and MarketWatch.com

Dow Jones  & Co. CEO Almar Latour sent out the following announcement:

Colleagues,

We are pleased to share that Dan Shar is expanding his responsibilities and now serves as president of both IBD and MarketWatch.

Jerry Ferrara, who has been serving as IBD’s president for nearly seven years, is moving into an advisory role where we’ll leverage his expertise in transition, integration and investing to help strengthen our businesses. Jerry will continue collaborating with Dan on IBD’s evolution.

IBD is a key part of our growth strategy. As its technical integration continues, we are increasingly focused on collaborating to drive and grow digital readership, subscriber acquisition, digital advertising and events. IBD data, analytics and tools will also become more widely available to other brands.

Dan’s experience makes him the right choice to lead both IBD and MarketWatch. As the executive sponsor for the IBD acquisition, Dan has been a champion of the vision for its future and the value it brings to Dow Jones since the acquisition was completed. Under his leadership, MarketWatch revenue doubled while Barron’s Group readership tripled. He also introduced the MarketWatch paywall and new, diversified revenue streams.

Though IBD and MarketWatch are separate businesses, there is immense collaboration potential that could add greater value to the investing communities they serve. The combination of the tremendous journalism from MarketWatch and IBD’s premium investor tools, information and reporting helps further Dow Jones’s mission: to provide the world’s most trusted journalism, data and analysis to help people make decisions.

Please join me in wishing Dan and Jerry continued success in their new roles.

Almar