Categories: OLD Media Moves

The demographics behind Wall Street Journal readers

Scott Mayerowitz of ABC News takes a look at the demographics of the average Wall Street Journal reader to determine News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch‘s interest in buying its parent company, Dow Jones & Co., for $5 billion.

Mayerowitz wrote, “Each day more than 2 million people pick up a copy of The Wall Street Journal or read it online, more than any other newspaper in the country, except USA Today, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

“More than three-fourths of them have a college degree, and their average household income is $234,909. The readers of USA Today and The New York Times tend to earn less.

“The Journal has a strong grasp on a group of readers who have the disposable income to spend on big-ticket items. A full-page color ad in the paper costs $168,500 to $234,000.

“Friday’s paper has ads for private jets, expensive watches, a $12.5 million house in Vail, Colo., and a ranch in Montana for $13.5 million.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.