I wouldn't blame the Bancroft family if they took some comfort today in knowing that the bleeding of Wall Street Journal's advertising revenues, which declined sharply in July, are News Corp's (NYSE: NWS) problem now. Murdoch seems to have his work cut out for him, too. The Dow Jones (NYSE:DJ) paper's ad revenues were down 7.2% for the month over 2006, on a decline in volume of 20.9%. For the year, ad revenues are off 4.6%. The company's Barron Magazine suffered an even great drop of 9.5%, but remains up 15.8% for the year. The drop off is especially foreboding given that the WSJ's digital edition ad sales revenue grew a whopping 24%, but still did not completely offset the shortfall in the tree-based edition. Technology ads declined the most, off over 75%, followed by classifieds, down 13.5%. Much of the classifieds drop is attributed to a decline in property for-sale ads, another casualty of the housing malaise. Strong ad sales in the financial sector helped soften the loss, though, up 21%.
The company's Ottaway Newspapers also lost advertising, down in ad revenue 16.5% for the month and 11.9% for the year.
The WSJ benefits from a strong circulation of over 2 million readers. Nonetheless, in 2006, 53.6% of Dow Jones' income came from advertising. Sharp, sudden loses are no way to please the new boss.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-26-2007 @ 9:52AM
David Becker said...
How is a 4.6% YTD drop "bleeding?" Have you mentioned what is going on Business Week, Forbes and Fortune. And your comparisons of the "dead tree" version to the digital version are hopelessly misleading. Take a closer look at the numbers, bud. Double 2 is 4. Yeah, online grows, off a tiny, tiny base. When the "dead tree" version grows 4% it spawns approximately the GDP of the Philippines.
This is exactly the kind of tabloid, sensational nonsense the world hopes Murdoch does not bring to The Journal.