• August 14, 2006

Dow Jones & Co. gave the struggling newspaper industry a glimmer of hope on Friday with its announcement that advertising revenue at The Wall Street Journal rose 5.8 percent in July 2006 compared to the same month last year. The rise in revenue was accompanied by an 11.7 percent jump in ad volume--and more good news from Dow Jones' weekly publication Barron's, which saw total ad revenue grow 50.7 percent and ad pages 29.1 percent on a year-over-year basis. Key growth areas for The Wall Street Journal were classifieds, financial, and technology, with the last category posting a 33.5 jump in ad volume. The Wall Street Journal's international edition posted 15.3 percent revenue growth, driven in part by its Asian and European editions, which both recently introduced color advertising.

--Erik Sass