Dow CEO: Ad linage at WSJ up in first two months

New Dow Jones CEO Richard Zannino said Wednesday at an investor conference that advertising for the company’s flagship Wall Street Journal newspaper has been up 13 percent in the first two months.

Dwight Ostricher of Dow Jones Newswire reports, “‘We took meaningful market share away from our primary print competitors in 2005 and so far in 2006 are doing the same,’ Zannino said Wednesday at the Bank of America media, telecommunications and entertainment conference here.

“The Journal has seen solid advertising gains in the technology and financial sectors as well as in general business to business, he said, while health-care and pharmaceutical advertising was soft.

“The company, which also publishes this newswire, said in January that ad lineage at the U.S. edition of the Journal should rise by a mid-single-digit percentage in the first quarter.”

Ostricher also later reported, “Zannino said the company would look for merger-and-acquisition opportunities in the enterprise media group, which includes Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones Licensing Services.

“He added that consumer media, which includes the print and online version of the Journal and Barron’s, as well as the MarketWatch online financial news concern, will benefit from the Weekend Journal turning profitable and the end of losses for international Journal editions. Zannino added that the company will lose a ‘little bit’ of money in Europe and turn a profit in Asia in 2006.”

Read the wire story here.