Dow Jones and Company is a global provider of business news and information. Its primary operations were in three business segments: print publishing, electronic publishing, and general-interest community newspapers. Now he stands in front of a decision what to do with two segments of the business, the Print Edition and the Interactive Edition.
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External environment .
Opportunities:.
• Wall Street journal is well-established and known newspaper and it is the largest circulation newspaper in the US. It has been in an unrivaled position as a top daily newspaper for 109 years. It also enjoyed tremendous loyalty among readers. The subscription renewal rate was 80%. This journal has a well-established international market as well.
• The total advertising market in the United States for print medium is projected to exceed $82 billion by 2001 up from $72 billion in 1999.
• The WSJ interactive edition is the largest paid subscription site on the WWW. Most information pay sites on the Internet are poorly organized or charge too much for services provided. .
• The market for Internet users is growing continuously. So, there might be an opportunity of expanding internet-based Interactive Edition. .
Threats.
• Newspaper industry was facing a future of little to no growth and mounting competition from other forms of news delivery, such as Internet.
• There are two primary sources of print revenues. They are sales/subscriptions and advertising. Advertising rate was dependent upon the circulation level.
• Newspapers faced increased media competition in the 1990s, making advertising sales a harder pitch.
• Many people are very skeptical of paying for the information on the Internet.
• Editorial and news skills for a near-real time environment became necessary skills for electronic publishing. In edition to that, there is an increased competition on the Internet between different information providers.