NEW YORK, Oct. 18, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- The Wall Street Journal announced today a two-year project to upgrade and refit its printing plants to meet the demands of business-to-business and business-to-consumer advertisers seeking additional opportunities to buy color advertising in the paper. The number of color pages offered advertisers will increase to 168 pages a week -- an increase of 17%, beginning in January 2009. This marks the first Journal color expansion for advertisers since 2002.
The capital cost of the project is estimated at $30 million to upgrade the Company's printing facilities nation-wide. The Company expects to invest $20 million in 2007, $9 million in 2008 and $1 million in 2009.
"We project rapid growth in color demand in excess of current Journal capabilities," said L. Gordon Crovitz, executive vice president, Dow Jones & Co. and publisher, The Wall Street Journal. "Actual color demand has significantly exceeded advertising forecasts since the 2002 color expansion. We expect to meet the color demands of our advertisers with this upgrade."
With the addition of more color-advertising pages per day in 2009, advertisers will have greater opportunities to run color advertising within the Journal.
"The Wall Street Journal will now be able to deliver significantly more color advertising pages a week," said Judy Barry, senior vice president of sales and marketing, The Wall Street Journal. "Given current advertising trends, this investment will respond to advertiser needs and continue to fuel our revenue growth."
Information Relating To Forward-Looking Statements:
This press release contains forward-looking statements, such as those including the words "project," "expect," "will," and similar expressions, that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated including: the cyclical nature of the Company's business and the strong, negative impact of economic downturns on advertising revenues; the risk that inconsistent trends across major advertising categories, such as technology and finance, will continue and that B2B advertising levels may or may not return to historical levels; intense competition for ad revenues the Company's products and services face; and such other risk factors as may be included from time to time in the Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and posted in the Investor Relations section of the Company's web site (www.dowjones.com). The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
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About The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal, the flagship publication of Dow Jones & Company (NYSE:DJ), (www.dowjones.com), is the world's leading business publication. Founded in 1889, The Wall Street Journal has a print and online circulation of nearly 2.1 million, reaching the nation's top business and political leaders, as well as investors across the country. Holding 31 Pulitzer Prizes for outstanding journalism, the Journal seeks to help its readers succeed by providing essential and relevant information, presented accurately and fairly, from an authoritative and trusted source. The Wall Street Journal print franchise has more than 600 journalists world-wide, part of the Dow Jones network of nearly 1,900 business and financial news staff. Other publications that are part of The Wall Street Journal franchise, with total circulation of 2.7 million, include The Wall Street Journal Asia, The Wall Street Journal Europe and The Wall Street Journal Online at WSJ.com, the largest paid subscription news site on the Web. In 2006, the Journal was ranked No. 1 in BtoB's Media Power 50 for the seventh consecutive year.