Dow Jones reports first-quarter increase in revenue, earnings

Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch.com and Barron’s, reported a 15 percent increase in revenue in the first quarter, primarily due to growth in circulation and subscription revenues.

Revenue rose to $444 million and earnings rose 32%  to $95 million. Dow Jones is part of News Corp., but the company breaks out its financial performance when it reports earnings.

Digital revenues at Dow Jones in the quarter represented 75% of total revenues compared to 73% in the prior year.

Circulation revenue grew 13%, reflecting the acquisition of Investor’s Business Daily and continued strong growth in digital-only subscriptions. Digital circulation revenues accounted for 66% of circulation revenues for the quarter, compared to 63% in the prior year.

During the first quarter, total average subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products reached approximately 4.6 million, an 18% increase compared to the prior year, and includes 128,000 IBD subscriptions, the majority being digital-only.

Total subscriptions to The Wall Street Journal grew 13% compared to the prior year, to over 3.5 million average subscriptions in the quarter. Digital-only subscriptions to The Journal grew 19% to over 2.8 million average subscriptions in the quarter, and represented 80% of total Wall Street Journal subscriptions.

Advertising revenues increased $20 million, or 29%, primarily due to 38% growth in digital advertising revenues. Digital advertising accounted for 61% of total advertising revenues in the quarter, compared to 57% in the prior year.

The earnings news release can be found here.