Print hit by ad decline The company reported Q1 operating income down 59% at $12.3 million and revenues down 14.6% at $392.9 million. Ad lineage at the
Wall Street Journal dropped by 25.0% on a per issue basis during the period, with the decline relenting slightly at 20.4% in March. As a result, print operating loss hit $8.8 million and a modest profit at the US
WSJ was offset by losses at its international editions.
Electronic editions Online publishing revenues fell by 4.4.% in Q1 to $77.8 million. The Wall Street Journal Online is the largest paid subscription news site on the web. Its subscriber base continued to grow, reaching 640,000 by the end of March.
Electronic publishing operating income rose by 94.4% year on year to reach $15.2 million.
Outlook Dow Jones said that it expects lineage at the Wall Street Journal to be down 10% to 20% in Q2 2002, painting a rather pessimistic picture of the US newspaper advertising market.
Comment Dow Jones’ reliance on technology and financial sector advertising – which has been hard-hit by the downturn – has seen its figures dip particularly steeply in recent months. However, a recent report in Editor and Publisher suggested that US newspapers are showing stronger ad revenues than had been anticipated (see Forecasts).
