• June 12, 2003

Dow Jones had a tough May for advertising. Advertising linage at The Wall Street Journal declined 9.3% with year-to-date total lineage down 11.4%. General ad linage at the Journal declined 22.8% in May 2003 mainly because of decreases in public utility, media, professional services and aviation advertising. Consumer advertising was weak because of a decline in travel and other consumer advertising, partially offset by an increase in auto advertising. Technology linage was virtually flat in May, down 0.3%, with decreases in B2B e-commerce and personal computer advertising, offset by increases in computer hardware and software advertising. Financial advertising declined 5.2%. At Barron's, national advertising pages decreased 25.2% per issue in May on weaker financial advertising. Year-to-date linage at Barron's declined 26.9% on a per issue basis.