Dow Jones total subs hit 3.8 million, WSJ subs grew 15 percent in the fourth quarter

Dow Jones & Co., the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch.com and Barron’s, reported fourth-quarter revenues declined $16 million, or 4 percent, to $382 million, according to the earnings press release from parent News Corp.

The decline was primarily due to a drop in advertising revenues, which were impacted by COVID-19, partially offset by growth in circulation and subscription revenues.

Digital revenues at Dow Jones in the quarter continued to rise and  represented 71 percent of total revenues compared to 63 percent in the same quarter of the prior year.

Circulation and subscription revenues increased $16 million, or 6 percent, driven by a 2 percent increase in circulation revenues, reflecting strong growth in digital-only subscriptions for Dow Jones’ consumer products.

Digital circulation revenues accounted for 61 percent of circulation revenues for the quarter. During the quarter, total subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products reached approximately 3.8 million, a 15 percent increase compared to the prior year, of which digital-only subscriptions grew 28 percent.

Subscriptions to The Journal grew 15 percent compared to the prior year, to nearly 3 million average subscriptions in the quarter. Digital-only subscriptions to The Journal grew 23 percent to more than 2.2 million average subscriptions in the quarter, and represented 75 percent of its total subscriptions.

Advertising revenue declined $28 million, or 28 percent, primarily due to a 43 percent decline in print advertising revenues, driven by general market weakness and lower volume across The Journal and Barron’s due to COVID-19, and a 7 percent decline in digital advertising revenues. Digital advertising accounted for 54 percent of total advertising revenues in the quarter.

To read the release, go here.