Dow Jones creates two new business units for WSJ

Dow Jones & Co. CEO William Lewis sent out the following announcement on Thursday:

Dear Colleague,

The rapid digital growth Dow Jones has enjoyed over the last three years presents our company with a golden opportunity and also a significant challenge.

The opportunity is to accelerate that growth at an even faster rate, doubling down on the quality and impact of our journalism. The challenge is to ensure we are properly organized to make the most of that opportunity.

This is a key moment in our great company’s history and we must structure ourselves accordingly.

We must recognize and relish the fact that we are now a digital publisher, while remaining ever conscious and appreciative of our duties as honored custodians of The Wall Street Journal print newspaper.

Only by realizing that our digital and print offerings are on different growth trajectories will we be able to liberate the resource, energy and imagination required to fulfill our true potential.

So today I am excited to announce Dow Jones will now operate through four, core business units – two existing and two newly formed – that will allow us to invest in our future digital growth while preserving our print heritage.

A new dedicated Print Products and Services unit will be responsible for the print P&Ls of The Wall Street Journal, as well as sister print publications including WSJ. Magazine, Barron’s and Financial News. Led by Frank Filippo, the unit will be accountable for all direct revenues and costs attributable to print. It will also manage the balance between editorial content and advertising, providing paginations geared to profitability and reader satisfaction.

The preservation of print in a ring-fenced unit enables us to create a separate commercial unit that focuses the Journal on digital growth, pursuing our ambition to become a truly membership-based organization.

The new WSJ unit, led by Suzi Watford, will spearhead our efforts to increase subscriptions across platforms and develop the brand, while also creating and monetizing brilliant events and conferences. No longer is “digital” an add-on to our main business – it is our main business. That is why this new unit is named simply “WSJ” – clear, compelling and critical to our future.

The two existing business units that complete our operating quartet are, of course, our Professional Information Business, overseen by Chris Lloyd, and Dow Jones Media Group, led by Almar Latour.

These vital units ensure we maintain the revenue diversity that continues to keep us so strong, as other publishers struggle to cope with negative trends in traditional advertising. PIB and DJMG possess the agility and ingenuity to exploit new opportunities in the fields of data and targeted publishing that will further fuel our growth.

The four, core business units – Print Products & Services, WSJ, PIB and DJMG – provide Dow Jones with a sharper focus on our corporate goals and even clearer lines of accountability for revenues, costs and general management.

While all four units are primarily accountable for their own P&Ls, I also expect all of them to collaborate and innovate with each other in the spirit and culture we have encouraged over the past three years.

Anna Sedgley and Katie Vanneck-Smith will share further details about the leadership and operation of these core business units in the coming days.

In the meantime, thank you for all your continued efforts as together we write the next chapter in the Dow Jones story.

Best,