Dow Jones still reporting losses from Weekend Journal

Dow Jones, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, reported its first quarter earnings on Tuesday and while profits rose due to accounting issues, the company said it was still losing money from the weekend edition of the Journal.

The earnings release states, “Advertising revenue at the U.S. Wall Street Journal print edition, including Weekend Edition, increased 17.9% in the first quarter (up 19.1% in March), on a linage increase of 14.9% (up 17.2% in March). And Dow Jones Online advertising revenue increased 26% in the quarter (on a pro-forma basis, meaning including MarketWatch 2005 advertising revenue for the full year, advertising revenue increased 15%).

“The 5.1% gain in circulation and other revenue at Consumer Media was driven by increases at the print Journal and at the Online Journal and Barron’s Online. Consumer Media had an operating loss in the first quarter 2006 of $2.4 million mainly due to expected losses for Weekend Edition, but it was an improvement over a loss of $6.9 million in the first quarter 2005.”

Read more here.

In a separate press release on its advertising, Dow Jones said advertising revenue for the Journal was up 19.1 percent and up 14.9 percent for Barron’s. Financial advertising in the Journal in March was up 25 percent.