Dow Jones CEO: We expect to continue to grow

Dow Jones & Co, CEO William Lewis sent out the following announcement on Friday:

Dear Colleague,

Yesterday afternoon, News Corp released its earnings results for the third quarter of fiscal 2018. I would like to pick out some of the highlights as they relate to Dow Jones.

During the analyst call that complemented the earnings release, News Corp Chief Executive Robert Thomson noted that circulation and subscription revenues increased 7% – primarily due to a healthy contribution from Dow Jones, which again saw a 10% increase in its circulation revenues, reflecting continued digital subscriber growth at The Wall Street Journal and strong growth in our Professional Information Business.

Robert explained that The Wall Street Journal’s digital-only subscriber growth was 24% year over year. Circulation revenues at Dow Jones again increased 10%, as our publications served a growing public demand for timely and reliable news. Total subscribers across Dow Jones recently shot past our 3 million target (based on preliminary internal metrics) and we expect continued growth in coming quarters.d

I would also highlight Robert’s words concerning our journalistic mission – and the responsibilities of the major digital platforms:

“The social and political debate over the digital platforms and their influence has intensified in recent months, as is certainly appropriate. For many years, News Corp, under the leadership of Rupert and Lachlan Murdoch, has highlighted the deleterious effect the platforms have had on journalism.

“The outcome of this debate will have a profound impact on our business and on the societies in which we operate. The end of Google’s prejudicial First Click Free policy, which punished high-quality journalism, has already benefited our mastheads and we appreciate the work of Sundar Pichai, in particular. It is, however, just a first step on the pathway to provenance.”

“We and other publishers are also in discussion with Facebook, which certainly professes concern about virtue and veracity. While authenticated professional news may represent a minority of the content on Facebook, there is no doubt that the company needs ‘trusted publishers’ to enhance an experience that has been polluted by fake news and ubiquitous, ill-informed, sometimes malicious gossip.”

To summarize, the diversity of our revenues is a core strength at Dow Jones, which is why our company plays such a vital role within the News & Information segment of News Corp.

We have worked very hard to put the company in the position it is in; let’s close the year as strongly as we began it.

The full Q3 results can be read here.

Best,