Dow Jones & Co. Inc., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, Marketwatch and other financial news services, on Thursday said it will review its editorial operations to find ways to cut costs and better serve different kinds of audiences.
The review, which will be led by Dow Jones Newswires president Paul Ingrassia, will try to determine how the company's various news operations can cut down on reporting duplicative news, Dow Jones chief executive officer Richard Zannino and Wall Street Journal editor Gordon Crovitz wrote in a memo to employees.
"The committee should focus on redesigning news and other content processes to eliminate unnecessary effort," Mr Zannino and Mr Crovitz wrote.
It also should "reduce the cost of producing 'commoditised' content to allow more resources to be focused on unique, differentiating content."
"Commoditised content" includes routine news items such as regular reports on stock market activity, Dow spokesman Robert Christie told Reuters.
No layoffs are planned, he said. Dow Jones has about 2,600 editorial staff worldwide, spread across several editions of the Wall Street Journal newspaper and website, the Marketwatch.com website, Dow Jones Newswires, Barron's magazine, the Far Eastern Economic review and a series of newsletters. It also owns the Ottaway chain of local newspapers, mostly located in the northeastern United States.
"The newswires group is servicing the financial community - brokers and that kind of crowd. Barron's is serving very sophisticated investors," he said. "The Journal and the online Journal are servicing very well-educated businesspeople. Marketwatch is serving the personal investor, the news junkie."
Dow Jones plans to complete the review early next year. The review comes as Dow Jones and other publishers are grappling with higher newsprint costs and a slump in advertising sales as more readers seek their news on the internet.
Several newspaper companies on Wednesday and Thursday reported lower earnings on declining ad sales and higher production costs. Dow Jones in June said it plans to meet its second-quarter earnings forecast of low- to mid-30 cents per share when it reports next week.
News of the review follows an announcement by Tribune Co. last week that it would cut back on foreign bureau coverage at some of its newspapers and consolidate most of its international news operations at its largest papers, the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune.
Dow Jones also said it plans to name a successor for Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger by next spring. Mr Steiger faces mandatory retirement at the end of 2007.