WSJ, Fox Biz discussion during News Corp. conference call

The following excerpts from the News Corp. conference call include comments about The Wall Street Journal‘s performance, as well as the performance of Fox Business Network:

Chief financial officer David DeVoe: “And at Dow Jones, operating results declined largely due to a 14% decrease at the Wall Street Journal for both display and classified declines, as well as lower information and service revenues. The reduced ad revenues were partially offset by our circulation revenues at the Wall Street Journal‘s print and online versions.”

Chief executive officer Rupert Murdoch: “At Fox Business Network, we are well ahead of our subscriber targets. As we close our second year of operations, FBN is now seen by close to 50.0 subscribers and after completing our recent deal for Ecco staff, expect those numbers to continue to grow quicky.”

Murdoch: “Quality journalism is not cheap and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalizing its ability to produce good reporting. The increase we have seen in our Wall Street Journal subscriptions since we acquired the paper proves to me that the market is willing to pay for that quality without any special market.”

Murdoch: “No, we are changing the price of the Journal on the Kindle and we will get a better share of the revenue, though I can’t say that I’m satisfied. It’s the final result of the [inaudible], but it will be a lot better. But it’s not a big number and we’re not encouraging it at all because we don’t get the names of the subscribers. Kindle treats them as their subscribers, not as ours. And I think that will eventually cause a break between us.”

Read the entire transcript here.