KEY POINTS:
NEW YORK - Dow Jones & Co, which is being sold to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, today reported a 7.2 per cent drop in July advertising revenue at The Wall Street Journal's print edition.
Revenue fell on a 20.9 per cent drop in ad volume compared with July 2006, reflecting the shift of advertising dollars to the internet and other media from newspapers.
Financial ad volume rose, but could not compensate for declines in technology, classified and general advertising, Dow Jones said in a statement.
The drop should not come as a surprise to media mogul Murdoch, who is well aware of problems facing newspapers worldwide, said Ken Doctor, a media analyst at Outsell Inc.
"I think he knows from the business that these declines are increasing," he said. "News Corp can well absorb a little greater decline than they're expecting because Dow Jones is still going to be a relatively small part of their company."
Murdoch also has shown a willingness to support star properties even in the face of decreasing profits and outright losses, including at the New York Post.
Dow Jones' online news properties, including the Journal's website and the MarketWatch.com business news website, reported a 24 per cent rise in July ad revenue.
International print advertising revenue fell 9.5 per cent in July on a 16.2 per cent decrease in advertising pages, it said.
Dow Jones' local newspaper group reported a 9.3 per cent drop in ad sales on a 16.5 per cent decline in volume. Murdoch said last week that he plans to sell the papers once he buys Dow Jones.
Even before Dow Jones agreed to be sold, the company had been trying to decrease its reliance on print revenue and favor digital expansion in news as well as properties such as the Factiva online news archive.
The recent results, if they continue to show up month after month, mean that "the transition to the digital future is going to have to come sooner than later," Doctor said.
Murdoch reportedly has considered several ideas for augmenting Dow Jones' electronic initiatives, including possibly making the Journal's website free and supported by advertising rather than subscriptions.
Dow Jones shares were flat in after-hours electronic trading after closing up 8 cents to US$58.60 ($80.21) on the New York Stock Exchange.
- REUTERS
