By: E&P Staff Dow Jones & Co. Inc. is on the upswing as the company reported Q1 EPS of $0.22, two cents above Goldman Sachs' estimate. According to a report released today by the investment firm, Dow Jones' digital assets, aggressive cost management and improving ad lineage resulted in positive numbers. However, Goldman Sachs estimates that "it will take at least two to three years for operating income to approach the peak level achieved in 2000."
Unlike others in the industry such as Gannett Co. Inc. and The New York Times Co., the Dow Jones recovery will take a different road as it depends heavily on the financial and technology sectors (though all companies should benefit from an overall rise in advertising spending). Once a laggard, Goldman predicts that Dow Jones will post "sharply better than industry average earnings growth" in 2004 and 2005.
Ad lineage at The Wall Street Journal increased 6.3% for Q1 due to strength in financial advertising, up 47%. Technology remained virtually flat, at 0.2%. After 11 quarters of decline, this represents the third consecutive quarter of positive WSJ linage comparisons. The jump in lineage is due mainly to strong March numbers -- 14.3% as opposed to January and February, down 0.6% and 1.7% respectively. The report noted that advertisers tend to wait until the last month of the quarter to spend.
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