Dow Jones CEO touts gains

Les Hinton, the CEO of Dow Jones & Co., sent a memo to the Wall Street Journal‘s staff on Wednesday about the results from the changes made to the paper.

Hinton wrote, “Total print and online revenue for The Wall Street Journal are up more than 17% in the fiscal 2011 first quarter when compared with the same period a year before. Total print advertising revenue increased by more than 21% for the quarter ended last week. Digital advertising revenue was up more than 29%. And total print circulation revenue was up more than 9% – 13% if you factor in digital.

“As a basis of comparison, for the same three month period the New York Times has forecast total print and online revenue for its calendar third quarter to fall 2 to 3% compared with a year before. Total print advertising revenue is expected to be down 5%. Total digital advertising revenue is projected to rise 14%. And total circulation revenue is trending down 5%.

“Our fiscal 2011 first-quarter numbers show that this is our fourth consecutive quarter of year-on-year growth in print and digital advertising. Our investment in our products continues to pay off. It is early in the year but signs are pointing in the right direction. As always, thank you for helping us to not only meet but exceed our own high expectations.”

Read the entire memo, posted on Romenesko, here.

Of course, the large gains by the Journal are due partly to the introduction of some new sections.