Revenue, profit rise at WSJ parent Dow Jones

Dow Jones & C0., the parent of The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, reported a 4 percent increase in second quarter revenue to $446 million due to circulation and subscription growth, as well as digital advertising.

Dow Jones is owned by News Corp., which reported its second quarter earnings on Tuesday and breaks out the Dow Jones business.

Digital revenues at Dow Jones in the quarter represented 70 percent of total revenues compared to 64 percent in the prior year.

Circulation and subscription revenues increased $23 million, or 8 percent. Circulation revenue grew 8 percent, reflecting strong growth in digital-only subscriptions, partially offset by lower single-copy and amenity sales related to COVID-19.

Digital circulation revenues accounted for 63 percent of circulation revenues for the quarter, compared to 57 percent in the prior year.

During the second quarter, Dow Jones saw the highest year-over-year growth in total subscriptions and digital-only subscriptions for both The Journal and total Dow Jones’ consumer products in its history.

Total subscriptions to Dow Jones’ consumer products reached a record 4.03 million average subscriptions for the quarter, an 18 percent increase compared to the prior year, and digital-only subscriptions grew 29 percent.

Total subscriptions to The Journal grew 19 percent compared to the prior year, to a record 3.22 million average subscriptions in the quarter. Digital-only subscriptions to The Journal grew 28 percent to more than 2.46 million average subscriptions in the quarter.

Advertising revenues decreased $5 million, or 4 percent, primarily due to a 29 percet decline in print advertising revenues, driven by general market weakness and lower print volume across The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s due to COVID-19.

Dow Jones’ earnings for the quarter increased 43 percent to $109 million due to lower costs related to lower print volume and other cost savings.

To read the earnings release, go here.