Dow Jones CEO on closure of WSJ Sunday and radio network

Dow Jones & Co. chief executive officer William Lewis sent out the following message to staff on Wednesday:

Dear Colleague,

Over the past few months, we have set and communicated ambitious goals for the company over the next three fiscal years, and we have done a lot to push toward those goals, including new investment, launches and product enhancements:

* New WSJ iPad app;
* New WSJ+ subscriber program;
* Partnership with Evernote for the Journal and Factiva;
* Digital expansion for Barron’s in Asia;
* Expansion of WSJ. Magazine into Latin America;
* New WSJD Live tech conference.

But it will come as no surprise that in order to do even more, we must do fewer things that are not core to our business so that we can move faster in pursuit of our goals.

By focusing our resources on areas we believe are ripe for growth we can operate with agility, efficiency and increased energy.

Today we are announcing plans that will see the discontinuation of some products over the coming months in support of that charge.

– The Wall Street Journal Radio Network, which includes MarketWatch Radio and provides content to affiliate stations in the U.S, will cease operations at the end of the calendar year. As we move away from the terrestrial radio business, we will continue to build out our digital audio capabilities and offerings.

– In the U.S., Sunday Journal from The Wall Street Journal, which provides content to partner newspapers each weekend, will come to a close over the coming months. We have an extremely strong offering in the very successful WSJ Weekend and will continue to work to grow that audience.

– We have made several moves in recent years to expand our reach digitally and globally into new markets and continue to embrace such expansion. But as we have analyzed our strategy, we have determined that local-language web sites in Germany and Turkey, as well as the Turkish-language Newswire, are not core to our future and will discontinue by the end of the year.

I was recently in Germany and was asked for clarity around the way forward – and I can assure you I am particularly excited about the growth opportunities for the Journal and WSJ.com in Germany as we work to drive subscriptions in this important market. We will also maintain our news bureaus in both countries. I am proud that we try new products in new markets, but we also must recognize that this should only be done in pursuit of our goals.

We have spoken today directly to the impacted colleagues on these plans, each of whom has greatly contributed to the company, and I thank them for their work. These decisions are not easy.

It’s important that we are nimble and move quickly in order to focus on our strategic priorities and operate as efficiently and effectively as possible.

As always, I invite you to email me directly with any thoughts.

A Wall Street Journal story said the cuts would result in about 50 to 60 employees losing their jobs.