Sramana Mitra writes on the Seeking Alpha web site that Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and Marketplace, is capitalizing on the changing media landscape.
Mitra wrote, “The conventional media business has been facing stiff competition from the online media for the past few years, which has resulted in a steady decline in newspaper circulation and print advertising revenues. Dow Jones changed its organizational structure in early 2006 to cope with the changing market scenario. It reorganized its reporting structure from channels of distribution – print, electronic and community to a more market and customer oriented structure of consumer media, enterprise media and local media, which will allow the company to leverage its strong branding.
“With the shift in advertising dollars and consumer interest from print media to online media, the Company has been focusing on reducing its dependence on conventional print revenues. Dow Jones is working on a strategy to grow its online media business rapidly and capture substantial market share of the online financial news, information, analytical tools, research and content business. The management of the Company plans to increase its online media business revenues from 30% in 2006 to 40% in 2007.”
Later, Mitra had kind words for the Marketwatch acquisition, writing, “The Marketwatch acquisition was of great strategic significance as it is among the top financial sites in the world with over five million unique visitors and 180 million monthly page views. Marketwatch covers the whole gamut of personal finance and is a strong established brand with a leadership position in business news and information, investment and analysis tools. The Marketwatch acquisition has added significantly to Dow Jones internet revenues and it will play a significant role in the company’s future growth because of its strong domain expertise and highly affluent customer base.”
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