Dow Jones Internet strategy is tepid

The Media Stock Blog, which gives no buy or sell recommendations, has a post from Douglas McIntyre, the former editor and publisher of Financial World magazine, that criticizes Dow Jones and its lackluster attempts at utilizing the Internet to keep its business journalism franchise going.

McIntyre writes, “Dow Jones has clearly been caught in the sunset of the newspaper industry, which is no sin in and of itself. The real disappointment is that the company’s move to capitalize on the internet and electronic deliver has been so poorly executed. One only has to look at what companies with no real financial journalism backgrounds like Microsoft (MSFT), Google (GOOG), and Yahoo! (YHOO) have done to build huge audiences in the investment and personal finance business.

“Dow Jones has probably missed the opportunity. It may not be able to recover from its late and tepid attempts to reach its audience on the web. If it is not too late, it will be soon, and one hopes new management stops shuffling divisions and starts to get its head in the game.”

Read the entire post here. A reader responds that McIntyre is wrong given the company’s recent acquisition of MarketWatch.com. I would add the fact that WSJ.com has the largest paid circulation of any news information web site.