Operating income before special items was down by 59.2% to £6.8m for the fourth quarter of 2001. EPS was 34 cents, down from 83 cents in the same quarter of 2000, and revenue fell by 22.7% to £303.5m in 2001. However, net income for the quarter was £1.5m, compared with a net loss of £192.9m in the fourth quarter of 2000.
Revenues in Dow Jones' print division, which includes the Wall Street Journal, reflected the downturn in advertising. The division's full-year revenues were down 27.1% to £773.6m. Advertising linage, the way Dow Jones calculates advertising volume, at the Wall Street Journal was down 37.6% for the full year.
The outlook for the newspaper in 2002 does not look any brighter, with Dow Jones saying it expects linage to be down in the range of 20% to 30% in the first quarter of 2002.
However, bucking the trend in internet operations, WSJ.com said full-year revenues were down only 2.9% to £223.7m, primarily due to the ad slump. WSJ.com's pioneering subscription-only service is paying off for Dow Jones. It now has 626,000 subscribers, up 17% on the end of 2000. Operating income for the electronic publishing division was up 13.5% on 2000, standing at £32.1m for the full year, before special items.
Shares in Dow Jones, listed on the New York Stock Exchange, were up slightly in morning trading at $26.64, an increase of 0.5% on yesterday's close.
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