How did WSJ turn an $80 million loss into a profit in one year?

Jeff Bercovici of DailyFinance.com wants to know how The Wall Street Journal, which lost more than $80 million in 2009, is now expected to report a profit one year later.

Bercovici writes, “Sure, the paper did some downsizing of its staff from one fiscal year to the next, but the numbers were small relative to the pruning going on elsewhere in the newspaper industry. And, sure, ad revenues were up 23 percent in the first quarter, but that has to be the money — reportedly $15 million — that owner Rupert Murdoch is sinking into the launch of a new New York City section.

“The simplest explanation would be if that $80 million included the $60 million Murdoch reportedly spent to relocate the Journal from its old digs at the World Financial Center to shiny new offices in News Corp.’s (NWS) headquarters building in midtown Manhattan.

“The Journal spokeswoman wouldn’t comment on how the expense of the move was accounted for, but a glance at News Corp.’s 10-K filing for fiscal 2009 suggests that at least some of the cost was assigned to the parent company, not the paper: The company reported $126 million in liabilities related to executive separation payments and lease terminations as part of something called the Dow Jones Integration Plan.”

“How to get to the bottom of this? If only there were some large newspaper that specialized in financial analysis…”

Read more here.