WSJ parent reports increase in earnings, revenue

Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and MarketWatch.com, reported its second quarter revenue rose 14 percent and its earnings rose 32 percent on circulation and advertising growth.

The results are released as part of parent company News Corp.’s results. Revenue rose 14 percent to $508 million and earnings rose 32 percent to $144 million.

Digital revenues at Dow Jones in the quarter represented 72% of total revenues compared to 70% in the prior year. Circulation and subscription revenues increased $37 million, or 12 percent. Circulation revenue grew 13 percent, reflecting the acquisition of Investor’s Business Daily and continued strong growth in digital-only subscriptions.

During the second quarter, total average subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products reached over 4.7 million, a 17 percent increase compared to the prior year, and includes 126,000 IBD subscriptions, the majority being digital-only. Digital-only subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products grew 23 percent.

Total subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal grew 12 percent compared to the prior year, to over 3.6 million average subscriptions in the quarter.

Digital-only subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal grew 19 percent to over 2.9 million average subscriptions in the quarter, and represented 81 percent of total Journal subscriptions.

Advertising revenues increased $26 million, or 23 percent, primarily due to 29 percent growth in print advertising revenues, which recovered strongly from the COVID-19 related weakness in the prior year, and 18 percent growth in digital advertising revenues, driven by improvement across major categories, most notably in B2C and financial services, and benefiting from higher yield.

Digital advertising accounted for 56 percent of total advertising revenues in the quarter, compared to 58 percent in the prior year, due to the recovery of print advertising.