Increasing circulation: Q&A with Joe Spitzer, Dow Jones & Co. (Asia)

Joe Spitzer is Director of Communications, Asia, for Dow Jones & Co.

IFRA: What would be your top idea for increasing circulation/reach in 2009?

Joe Spitzer: We are focusing our circulation marketing efforts on two specific segments of the market: women and younger readers.

According to The Wall Street Journal Asia's (WSJA) latest subscriber study, approximately 21 percent of our subscribers are female. With an increasing number of affluent, influential women moving into senior management and political leadership roles in Asia, we have initiated a number of special programmes designed to reach them, such as our Women in Business initiative, which recognises the achievements of business women in the region.

With just roughly 15 percent of WSJA subscribers being in the 25-34 age bracket, we are also targeting younger readers through programmes such as the Future Leadership Program, which provides MBA students with sponsored subscriptions and opportunities for interaction with business leaders.

IFRA: What do you think are the keys to growing (or maintaining) circulation during a time when the newspaper industry is going through such a difficult time?

Spitzer: Actually it has been an exceptionally good time for the Journal in terms of increased print readership and online audience numbers, in Asia and globally.

The economic turmoil has spurred growth in readership and reinforced our newspaper's status as required reading for decision-makers and policy-makers. The BE:ASIA (formerly ABRS) survey continues to rank us as as the most important business reading among all international newspapers in the Asia Pacific region. Moreover, The Wall Street Journal ranks first among print news media for believability, according to the respected 2008 Pew Research Center news survey. In the current environment, business decision-makers are gravitating even more towards the most trustworthy and reliable sources of news and information.

WSJ.com is a prime destination for readers looking for information about the financial crisis. Visits and page views in Asia were up month-on-month in September 2008 by over 40 percent and over 30 percent, respectively, and in October 2008 by roughly 25 and 35 percent, respectively.

Our Chinese-language website, Chinese.wsj.com, saw visits up by 297 percent in October 2008 year over year, and page views up by nearly 200 percent.

Overall, the Wall Street Journal Digital Network saw 120 percent growth in visitors (40.5 million) in October and November 2008 year over year, and WSJ.com was up 86 percent, with 22 million visitors. September 2008 was WSJ.com's record month for traffic with 24.5 million visitors.

IFRA: How has your publication been able to capture its audience... Why has it worked?

Spitzer: We stay tightly focused on our audience's aspirations and needs -- our affluent and influential readers demand comprehensive news and business coverage, insight and understanding, and no one does this better than us -- it's that simple. The Wall Street Journal has a global news staff of more than 750, part of the full resources of the Dow Jones network of more than 1900 business and financial news staff worldwide. We offer unmatched global coverage tailored to the interests of our audience in Asia, with local resources allocated to news products designed for a regional audience, rather than a "one size fits all" approach. We have also put in place dedicated online newsgathering teams and online managing editors in Asia and Europe to further increase the relevance of our content to the interests of our online audiences in these regions.

According to the latest Hall's Reports editorial tracking study* for the July-September 2008 period:

> The Wall Street Journal featured 200 more pages of business and finance coverage than all the business and news magazines covered by the study... combined.

> The Wall Street Journal devoted 420 pages of its editorial to consumer topics. That was more coverage than 158 of the170 measured publications, including Vogue, InStyle, Conde Nast Traveler, GQ and National Geographic.

(*This independent service is the leader in editorial tracking for the US magazine industry. The Journal is the first and only daily newspaper to be included among the 170 titles measured.)

With Asian editions of our weekly Weekend Journal and our new quarterly WSJ. magazine (the second issue to be published in early December) we offer comprehensive coverage of lifestyle issues of interest to our audience.

Wall Street Journal-organised events are another important marketing channel which resonates with both readers and advertisers. Two recent examples -- our 7th annual China Financial Markets Conference, held Nov 17 in Shanghai, and the US Journal's CEO Council, also held Nov 17, in Washington, are two prime examples.

IFRA: How relevant are circulation figures still to advertisers... Are they more and more asking for reach- and behavioral-specific information?

Spitzer: Advertisers are increasingly sophisticated. They want coverage but specifically of their target audience. In today's tough environment they have zero tolerance for wastage; they are interested in readers' attitudes to publications for more effective advertising. The editorial environment for advertising is more important than ever.