Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ) faces the classic problem plaguing the newspaper industry. Print advertising and circulation are dropping every quarter. But the company has some advantages as a national newpaper and financial news providers that even companies like The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) and Gannett (NYSE: GCI) do not. Local papers depend on retail advertising that now often goes to sites like realtor.com and careerbuilder. These papers also have to compete with online yellow page products.

Making a direct comparison between the first quarter of last year and the same period in 2007 is difficult. Dow Jones bought the part of Factiva, an online information company, that it did not own, from Reuters (NASDAQ: RTRSY).

Total revenue for the quarter was $507 million up from $430 million last year. But the enterprise media group, which includes Factiva this year but not last, was up to $173 million from $97 million.

The action in the earnings report is in the largest segment of the company -- consumer media. The segment includes The Wall Street Journal print and online divisions. Revenue was flat at about $280 million. Revenue at the US edition of the Journal fell 2%. But online revenue grew 30%. Subscriptions to the online version of the WSJ were up 20% to 931,000.

So the race is on. Web revenue has to continue to rise at the rate that it is now for the overall consumer operations at Dow Jones to simply stay flat.

Dow Jones is in the fortunate position of having an international audience. The US edition of the Journal has over 2 million subscribers. Barron's has about 300,000. The audiences are wealthy and sophisticated. If any group is likely to buy products online, it is this one.

If Dow Jones cannot makes its online products grow faster than its print products drop, there is very little hope for the rest of the industry.

Douglas A. McIntyre is a partner at 24/7 Wall St.