Here are comments News Corp. CEO Robert Thomson made during its earnings conference call Monday about The Wall Street Journal:
Advertising of the Wall Street Journal was down 21% but our circulation revenue rose 6% and the number of paid digital subscribers at The Wall Street Journal crossed the 1 million mark in September.
The transition at the W.S.J. was highlighted by the fact that digital accounted for a record 55% percent of revenues this quarter. Obviously, some of that change is due to the decline in print advertising, but it also reflects the emphasis on broadening the digital subscriber base and the long term strategy of upselling higher yielding specialist products to those subscribers.
Historically, advertising accounted for about half the revenues at Dow Jones, but that ratio is now closer to 1/3.
Read the entire transcript of the call here.
