EXHIBIT 99
Contact: Richard Tofel, Dow Jones & Company
212-416-2951
Geoffrey Moore, Dow Jones Markets
212-416-3695
Dow Jones Markets Will Focus Efforts on
Content Strengths, New Workstation Product
Earnings Charge, Staff Reductions Announced
NEW YORK, NY (November 19, 1997) -- Dow Jones & Company announced
that Dow Jones Markets will be more sharply focusing its efforts
on its competitive strengths in content and its workstation
product line, led by the new Active1 Workstation.
As a consequence of this business focus, the staff of Dow
Jones Markets will be reduced by 200-300 between now and early
1998, and the previously-announced multi-year investment program
for Dow Jones Markets is being substantially scaled back. Dow
Jones & Company will be taking a very sizable charge against
fourth quarter earnings, reflecting a write-down of goodwill and
severance and other costs. The amount of the charge, the bulk of
which will be non-cash, has not yet been determined, but it will
result in the company recording a large net loss for 1997.
Excluding this charge, Dow Jones' 1997 earnings are still expected
to be in the previously-projected range of $1.20-1.40 per share.
Peter R. Kann, chairman and CEO of Dow Jones & Company, said,
"Nearly one year into our investment program, and as we continue
to examine all alternatives for Dow Jones Markets, we have
concluded that a program for that unit that builds on what we've
accomplished this year, but which is far less ambitious and
expensive, is in the best interests of Dow Jones and its
shareholders."
Spending on the investment program in 1997 included the
acquisition of Indepth Data and the licensing of "The Beast"
analytics software from CastleNet LLC as well as the development
of the Active1 Workstation and other non-product initiatives.
Investment spending in 1998 will be considerably less than the
$170 million that will have been spent by the end of 1997.
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The new focus announced today recognizes Dow Jones strengths
in content, in technology solutions, and in productivity
applications for financial professionals.
Content is anchored by Dow Jones news; benchmark real-time
U.S. Treasury prices from Cantor Fitzgerald Securities Corp.;
real-time and historical bond information from the recently
acquired Indepth Data; recently announced joint ventures in
equities with Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc. (Nikkei) and QUICK Corp.
in Japan and Primark Corp. in Europe; and by future enhancements,
particularly in the areas of fixed income and foreign exchange.
Technology solutions will center on the Dow Jones Platform, a
fast-growing digital data distribution system for the trading
rooms of financial institutions worldwide.
The productivity-application focus will feature the Dow Jones
Workstation and its most technologically advanced applications.
These include, most notably, Active1, a powerful new support tool
for financial professionals that the company believes is
substantially ahead of competitive products. Using open industry
standards based on Microsoft ActiveX technology, Active1 has the
potential to lower customers' operating costs and increase their
revenue by giving traders a unique data-centric desktop
environment in which they can easily and quickly assemble, link
and customize information flows without technical support.
Kenneth L. Burenga, president and COO of Dow Jones & Company
and CEO of Dow Jones Markets, said, "We have decided to focus our
ongoing business efforts on our areas of greatest strength. The
re-focus being announced today and implemented in the weeks and
months ahead best positions our business going forward."
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Dow Jones Markets is a leading global provider of news and
market information, decision-support applications, trading-room
platforms and transaction services for financial institutions.
Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ) also publishes The Wall Street
Journal and its international and Interactive editions, Barron's,
other business periodicals, the Dow Jones Indexes, Dow Jones
Newswires, Dow Jones Interactive, and the Ottaway group of
community newspapers, and produces business television
programming.
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This press release contains forward-looking statements that
are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual
results and events could differ materially from those anticipated
in the forward-looking statements. The words "estimates,"
"intends," "will be," "plans," "expects," "likely," and similar
expressions identify forward-looking statements. Factors that
might cause such a difference include, but are not limited to, the
company's ability to achieve and implement the planned refocusing
of Dow Jones Market's products and services on a timely and cost-
effective basis and customer acceptance thereof; general
economic conditions and business conditions (growth or
consolidation) in the financial services and banking industries,
and their impact on advertising sales of the Company's products
and services; cost of newsprint; and such other risk factors as
may have been or may be included from time to time in the
Company's SEC reports, including the 8-K report filed today.