WSJ parent reports strong fourth quarter

Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and MarketWatch.com, reported a 26 percent increase in revenue in the fourth quarter due to circulation and advertising gains.

The company, a subsidiary of News Corp., reported revenue of $565 million for the quarter ended June 30, up from $449 million in the same quarter a year ago.

EBITDA earnings for Dow Jones rose 54 percent to $106 million for the quarter.

Digital revenues at Dow Jones in the quarter represented 76 percent of total revenues compared to 72 percent in the prior year.

During the quarter, total average subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products reached approximately 4.9 million, a 9 percent increase compared to the prior year.

Digital-only subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products grew 14 percent.

Subscriptions to The Journal grew 8 percent compared to the prior year, to over 3.7 million average subscriptions in the quarter. Digital-only subscriptions to The Journal grew 14 percent to approximately 3.1 million average subscriptions in the quarter, and represented 83 percent of its total subscriptions.

The full earnings 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.