Dow Jones saw 10 percent circulation growth in the fourth quarter

William Lewis, the chief executive officer at Dow Jones & Co., sent out the following note to the staff on Friday:

Dear Colleague,

Yesterday afternoon News Corp released its earnings results for the fourth quarter and full fiscal 2017. I would like to share information on the company’s overall performance, as well as highlights related to Dow Jones.

During the analyst call, Robert Thomson noted that Dow Jones saw 10 percent circulation revenue growth in the fourth quarter, the largest it has experienced since fiscal 2011.

The Wall Street Journal saw strong digital growth, ending with nearly 1.3 million digital subscribers representing 56% of the Journal’s total paid subscribers, up almost 70% in the past two years.

Robert noted that we have successfully continued to streamline print costs, and reinvest in digital through the implementation of our Dow Jones 2020 strategy, leading to digital accounting for 55% of Dow Jones’ full-year revenues.

This is testament to our absolute focus on innovation in our digital and mobile platforms and products. The latest, function-rich iterations of our iPhone and Android products will help us maintain this momentum.

While we have an established and loyal market for our print product in the U.S., we will continue to scale back our print operations around the world, reflecting the increasing appetite for our content in digital formats.

Robert announced that we have made real progress with Facebook and Google, which are both working on subscription mechanics that could serve to bring more readers to our mastheads and fundamentally change the content ecosystem. This will be good news for the wider industry, and something to which we will be paying very close attention.

Robert then went on to flag how our Professional Information Business has gained in strength, with Risk and Compliance delivering a strong performance and a healthy sales pipeline. For the year, Risk and Compliance revenues rose over 20% percent, with close to 30% growth year-on-year in Q4, and we expect even higher growth in fiscal 18.

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 hard to put the company in the position it is in, and we are primed for strong growth in fiscal 2018.

Best,
William Lewis