Barron's on the rebound

Forbes.com media writer Louis Hau takes a look at the business news media property at Dow Jones & Co. that is being virtually ignored during talks to sell the company. Barron’s has reported a 14.5 percent jump in total advertising pages and a 17 percent surge in advertising revenue in the first five months of the year despite a sluggish market for print advertising.

Hau wrote, “But the most important draw for advertisers is Barron’s itself, and its affluent readership, which spends an average of two hours and 15 minutes with each issue, Holland says.

“At a time when most print publications are scrambling to redefine themselves for a more Web-savvy audience, Barron’s has remained strikingly the same. The publication has gone through its share of changes, including a 2005 redesign of the print edition and beefed-up coverage on its Web site.

“But most of the features that readers have long sought in Barron’s remain unchanged. It still comes out every Saturday. It still leads with former editor and longtime columnist Alan Abelson’s widely read ‘Up & Down Wall Street’ column. The ‘Market Week’ roundup remains a pull-out section, with a Milton Glaser cartoon of founder Clarence Barron that still graces the front of the section.”

Read more here.