Wall Street Journal shutters European and Asian print editions to offset advertising loses
The Wall Street Journal has called time on its European print edition with the Asian publication set to follow on its heels, all part of a cost-cutting measure at parent company News Corp.
Wall Street Journal retracts from international markets
The European version of the broadsheet was first opened 24 years ago, orchestrated out of London. It was largely dependent on free copy distribution. According to the latest ABC certificate for 2016, the Europe edition had an average daily circulation of 58,788, of which just under 5,000 were subscription and newsstand sales.
The tightening of belts comes as News Corp, in its most recent annual filings, reported a loss of $643m across its publishing stable as advertising revenue for the company was down 12%, mostly due to the slump of print. As such the publisher has been looking to funnel people to its website – and more importantly its paywall.
The final Europe edition will be published today (29 September) with the Asia print edition to end next week.
The move has long been in the works, back in June the company said: “We are constantly examining the balance between print and digital at a time when we’re seeing sharp growth in customer demand for digital. Over the past year, WSJ digital subscriptions have more than doubled in Asia and they have grown by 48% in Europe.”