The company said net income was $43.2m ($30.8m) or 50 cents a diluted share, against $100.6m (£71.4m) or $1.13 a share last time. Wall Street analysts had forecast 47 cents a share. Revenues were down 23% to $484.1m year on year.
The company's share price rose from $56.90 (£40.79) to $59.60 (£42.72), a jump of 4.8%.
Dow Jones has undertaken a series of cost-cutting measures including redundancies, which saved the company $110m (£78.4m) during the first quarter and a further $40m (£28.5m) in the second.
In a statement, Peter R Kann, chairman and CEO at Dow Jones, said, "Our results reflect continued economic softness and a slightly worse than originally expected downturn in advertising, compared with unusually strong increases a year ago. Despite this downturn, we were able to deliver earnings at the low end of our guidance range, due to aggressive cost reductions."
The publisher however, was less optimistic about the third quarter and expects earnings to be between 20 and 30 cents a share, below analysts' expectations of 55 cents a share, if the market does not pick up.