Dow Jones gets almost half of revenue from digital publications

Dow Jones & Co. CEO Les Hinton told a Japanese crowd on Monday that the company gets nearly half its revenue from digital publications because progress in media technology is continuing despite a global recession.

Takashi Kitazume of the Japan Times writes, “‘New products come to market faster than ever, and the WSJ’s new iPad application debuted only a few weeks after development began . . . It is only one of the few products we launched this year that we hadn’t even imagined a year or so ago,’ he said.

“Hinton said Apple’s new gadget is significant because it is among ‘the first of scores of mobile tablet media’ that can replicate the functions of newspapers, adding that the machines ‘are going to get lighter, faster, cheaper, and will be universal.’

“He also said major media organizations with a global reach need to localize their content to fit the needs of each market.

“‘It doesn’t do just to be global anymore. You have to be local, too,’ he said, explaining that the group now publishes news and business information in a dozen languages including Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, German, French and Arabic.”

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