NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--News Corp announced today that Dow Jones set new performance records in the third quarter of fiscal 2020, meeting a growing global need for fact-based reporting and high quality data and analysis.
“These Dow Jones numbers are vastly superior to those announced by The New York Times yesterday. Digital advertising increased by 25% at Dow Jones, while it fell during the same quarter by 8% at The New York Times. And while year-on-year profitability declined double digits at the NYT, it rose at Dow Jones, and was a key contributor to our News and Information segment’s 15% increase. Revenue growth at Dow Jones in the quarter, at 5%, also outpaced the NYT’s 1% increase,” said Robert Thomson, Chief Executive of News Corp. “The relative success of The Wall Street Journal shows the value to readers of trusted news analysis, of pithy, pertinent opinion writers, and of reporters who have the objective of being objective. The WSJ subscriber base and the MarketWatch audience are patently a platform for further growth, as the team has been able to upsell readers to Barron’s and to professional information products that are essential for business and higher yielding.”
News Corp’s announcement follows the naming of Almar Latour as the new Chief Executive Officer of Dow Jones and Publisher of The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Latour, who is currently Publisher for Barron’s Group at Dow Jones, will assume the role with the departure of William Lewis on May 15.
In the third quarter, Dow Jones set a new record of nearly 3.6 million total subscriptions across The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s Group, representing a 10% increase year-over-year, including a 20% increase in digital only growth.
As part of the company’s third quarter earnings report, News Corp also noted that The Wall Street Journal’s digital paid subscribers were up 15% year-over-year to more than two million, another record. Digital subscribers accounted for 73% of the Journal subscriber base for the third quarter.
In recent days, the Journal has reached approximately 3 million total subscribers for the first time, including 2.2 million digital only, which represents over 20% growth year-over-year.
According to internal metrics, unique visitors to The Wall Street Journal were up 74% year-over-year, while Barron’s saw a 163% jump in March alone. MarketWatch's unique visitors also rose exponentially, tripling to 90 million in March compared to March, 2019.
While information and reporting on the virus helped drive high subscriber counts and traffic, advertising revenue overall was impacted in late March, though digital advertising across Dow Jones rose 25% year-over-year for the third quarter, and accounted for 47% of Dow Jones’ total ad revenues in the quarter. By comparison, The New York Times digital advertising revenues fell approximately 8% in the quarter.
Overall, Dow Jones revenues increased 5% in the third quarter, and above The New York Times at 1%. Dow Jones, including its growing Professional Information Business, remains significantly more digital than The New York Times, with digital representing 68% of revenues in the third quarter. Dow Jones profitability improved in the quarter, compared to decline at The New York Times, and was a major factor in News Corp’s News and Information Services segment EBITDA growth of 15% year over year.
News Corp also highlighted the continued double-digit revenue growth of Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, which grew 18% over the third quarter, as organizations ramp up to manage regulatory and reputational risk on a global scale.
Risk & Compliance is on track to approach approximately $160 million in revenues this fiscal year. It is the main contributor to the growth of Dow Jones’s professional information business, which also includes Factiva and Dow Jones Newswires.
For more information about News Corp’s Q3 Earnings, click here.
About News Corp
News Corp (Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) is a global, diversified media and information services company focused on creating and distributing authoritative and engaging content and other products and services. The company comprises businesses across a range of media, including: news and information services, subscription video services in Australia, book publishing and digital real estate services. Headquartered in New York, News Corp operates primarily in the United States, Australia, and the United Kingdom, and its content and other products and services are distributed and consumed worldwide. More information is available at: http://www.newscorp.com.
About Dow Jones
Dow Jones is a global provider of news and business information, delivering content to consumers and organizations around the world across multiple formats, including print, digital, mobile and live events. Dow Jones has produced unrivaled quality content for more than 130 years and today has one of the world’s largest newsgathering operations globally. It produces leading publications and products including the flagship Wall Street Journal, America’s largest newspaper by paid circulation; Factiva, Barron’s, MarketWatch, Mansion Global, Financial News, Dow Jones Risk & Compliance and Dow Jones Newswires. Dow Jones is a division of News Corp (NASDAQ:NWS)(NASDAQ:NWSA)(ASX:NWS)(ASX:NWSLV)
