NEW YORK, Oct. 18, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- Dow Jones & Company (NYSE:DJ) today reported September advertising revenue and volume for its leading print publications.
Advertising revenue at The Wall Street Journal decreased 5.9% in September on an 8.2% decrease in advertising volume, due to declines in the technology, classified, general and financial categories. In the technology advertising category at the Journal, September linage decreased 14.2% due to decreases in technology professional services, personal computers and hardware advertising, partially offset by an increase in office products advertising. The Journal's classified advertising category linage decreased 13.1% due to a decline in real estate advertising. This represents the first decline in classified advertising volume since January 2005. Linage in the Journal's general advertising category decreased 5.0% as decreases in professional services, auto and other general business advertising, were partially offset by increases in beverages and consumer electronics advertising. The Journal's financial advertising linage decreased 2.0% due to a decline in retail advertising, partially offset by increases in insurance and wholesale advertising.
At Barron's, total advertising revenue increased 20.4% in September on a 10.2% increase in advertising pages primarily due to an increase in financial advertising partially offset by a decline in auto and technology advertising.
International advertising revenue increased 36.7% in September due to strong color penetration at both The Wall Street Journal Asia and The Wall Street Journal Europe.
At Ottaway Newspapers, advertising revenue in September, excluding discontinued operations (see footnote 4 in table for additional information), decreased 1.9% (down 1.3% including discontinued operations) due to decreases in classified & other (down 5.2%), display (down 3.3%), non-daily (down 9.6%) and preprint (up slightly) advertising revenue, partially offset by a 63.7% increase in online advertising revenue. Total print advertising volume declined 9.2% (down 7.1% including discontinued operations) due to declines in display, help wanted, auto and other classified advertising and non-daily advertising.
Dow Jones & Company (NYSE:DJ) (dowjones.com) publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international and online editions, Barron's and the Far Eastern Economic Review, Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Indexes, MarketWatch and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. Dow Jones is co-owner with Reuters Group of Factiva and with Hearst of SmartMoney. Dow Jones also provides news content to CNBC and radio stations in the U.S.
The Dow Jones & Company logo is available at http://www.primezone.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=2636
Dow Jones & Company 2006 Advertising Linage Percentage
Increases (Decreases) from 2005
September Third Quarter Year to date
Actual Actual Actual
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THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: (1)
Total advertising revenue (5.9%) 0.3% 10.2%
Total advertising volume (8.2%) 1.1% 9.1%
General (5.0%) (2.0%) 6.4%
Technology (14.2%) (0.9%) 2.3%
Financial (2.0%) 9.5% 10.5%
Classified & Other (13.1%) 1.1% 15.9%
International advertising
revenue (2) 36.7% 24.4% 3.7%
Barron's advertising revenue 20.4% 22.8% 9.9%
Barron's advertising volume 10.2% 15.1% 1.4%
Ottaway Newspapers advertising
revenues: (3)
Display (3.3%) (4.8%) (0.8%)
Classified & Other (5.2%) (4.8%) (1.6%)
Preprint & other 0.0% 0.7% 3.8%
Online 63.7% 66.6% 52.1%
Total advertising revenues (1.9%) (1.1%) 1.7%
Ottaway Newspapers advertising
volume (4) (9.2%) (7.7%) (6.7%)
(1) General, technology and financial advertising for 2005 was
reclassified to conform to the current year presentation.
(2) Includes the international editions of the Journal and the Far
Eastern Economic Review.
(3) During the third quarter of 2006, we announced our plan to seek
alternatives for certain local media newspaper businesses
including cash sales and exchanges for other community
newspapers. Accordingly, these operations are excluded from these
results pursuant to Statement of Financial Accounting Standards
No.144 "Accounting for the impairment or Disposal of Long-Lived
Assets."
(4) Excludes preprint & other volume and online advertising.