1. art and entertainment
2. books and literature
3. magazines

DOW JONES
GLOBAL SALES & SUBSCRIPTIONS REPORT
METHODOLOGY
18 May 2015
Background
Dow Jones (DJ) has used the methodology set out in this document to calculate and report its Average Issue Global
Sales and Subscriptions for print and digital categories across seven publications. This data is set out in the
accompanying Dow Jones Global Sales and Subscriptions Report (the “Report”).
Average Issue Global Sales (hereafter referred to as Sales) incorporates the average by publication across the
period of 29 December 2014 through 29 March 2015 (hereafter referred to as Mar 2015 Quarter). As an example,
the WSJ Americas average sales are an average of all Monday to Friday and Weekend issues published in the
period.
DJ has engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP UK (PwC) to provide independent assurance over DJ’s methodology
for calculating and reporting these global sales and subscriptions. PwC’s independent assurance opinion is set out
on the final page of this document.
Report Components
The Report contains print and digital sales and subscriptions data for the following publications:
The Wall Street Journal – Americas
The Wall Street Journal – Europe
The Wall Street Journal – Asia
Barron’s
Financial News (including Private Equity News)
MarketWatch
Except for MarketWatch, which is published in the digital format only, all publications have a print and digital
component.
Within the print component of each publication, the data represents de-duplicated individual subscriptions, single
copy sales (newstrade), corporate, individual recipient, education, employee and amenity categories of
distribution for the Mar 2015 Quarter.
Within the digital component of each publication, the data represents de-duplicated individual subscriptions,
single copy sales, corporate, education and amenity categories of distribution for the Mar 2015 Quarter.
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The data across print and digital is de-duplicated to a reasonable extent based on subscriber information. It is not
possible, using subscriber data, to de-duplicate, (as an example) a subscriber who may also purchase a single print
copy.
The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s sell print/digital subscription bundles. In those cases only one subscription is
counted in this report. Where two separate subscriptions of a single title or subscriptions to multiple titles are sold,
each is considered a sale as they are separate transactions.
Publications and Categories
Publications: The time frame for this Report is 29 December 2014 through 29 March 2015. This coincides with the
quarterly fiscal reporting period of Dow Jones. The time frame is referred to as the Mar 2015 Quarter.
Excluded days: The Alliance for Audited Media, Audit Bureau of Circulations (UK) and Business Publications Audit
Worldwide continue to be the circulation audit agencies working with The Wall Street Journal - Americas, The Wall
Street Journal – Europe and The Wall Street Journal – Asia editions, respectively. Each of these circulation audit
agencies have rules governing how an issue may be excluded from reported averages. When a qualified excluded
day is known prior to finalization of the global sales and subscriptions report each quarter, the circulation for those
days is excluded from the averages reported. The updated report is subject to the PwC Independent Assurance
Review.
The following publications and components are included:
The Wall Street Journal – Americas
 Published Monday to Friday and Weekend
 Non Publishing Days in Mar 2015 Quarter
o Thursday, 1 January
o Monday, 19 January
o Monday, 16 February
The Wall Street Journal – Europe
 Published Monday to Friday
 Non Publishing Days in Mar 2015 Quarter
o Thursday, 1 January
The Wall Street Journal – Asia
 Published Monday to Friday
 Non Publishing Days in Mar 2015 Quarter
o Thursday, 1 January
o Thursday, 19 February
o Friday, 20 February
Barron’s
 Published Weekly with a Monday cover date
Financial News (including Private Equity News)
 Published Weekly with a Monday cover date
 Non-Publishing Day in Mar 2015 Quarter
o Monday, 29 December
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MarketWatch
 Published in the form of nine newsletters; each with its own price structure. Subscribers may purchase
one or more newsletters. All weekly unless otherwise noted.
 Newsletters
o ETF Trader
o Hulbert Financial Digest
o Hulbert Interactive
o Hulbert’s on Markets: What’s Working Now
o Option Trader
o Proactive Fund Investor
o Retirement Weekly
o Revolution Investing
o Technical Indicator (published daily)
Categories: Within each publication the categories of sale include:
PRINT
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Paid Home Delivery (includes subscriptions up to 90 days after they have expired (the “gracing period”)
and subscriptions purchased with award points and by students for individual use)
Single Copy Sales/Newsstand
Corporate – copies purchased by companies for distribution to specific employees
Amenity – copies ordered by hotels/airlines/retail venues for pick up by guests/passengers/patrons
Verified – copies served to recipients who were targeted by WSJ, employees, education institutions for
use by students and public place locations
DIGITAL
 Paid subscriptions to individuals
 Subscriptions served to students and businesses based on license agreements
 eReader subscriptions
 Amenity – access to hotels guests/airline passengers
Definitions
A Sale: When an individual or organization places an order for one or more copies or subscriptions to the
Newspaper, Magazine, or digital product. Where more than one copy or subscription is ordered, the amounts of
copies or subscriptions ordered are counted as sales. i.e. 10 copies = 10 sales. All sale types listed below are
included in the global sales number in the Dow Jones Global Sales and Subscriptions Report.
A Subscription: The Product is delivered to individuals or organizations for designated recipients on an ongoing
basis – the end users can be identified by Dow Jones or the organization. Corporations ordering for a group of
designated employees = subscriptions. Hotels ordering copies for hotel guests = not countable as subscriptions.
Sales types that do not qualify as subscriptions are: Single Copy Sales and Amenity along with a segment of Verified
and Education sales.
Product Format & Counting: All publications, except MarketWatch (which is sold in digital form only) are sold in
print/digital bundles or digital only bundles. The digital edition is accessible, in most subscription plans, through
online, tablet and mobile. For purposes of this Global Sales and Subscriptions Report only one unit is reported for
each bundle sale. As an example, a print/digital bundle is reported as print only. This Report includes only unique
sales and subscriptions. There is no double counting unless an individual makes a separate decision to purchase a
print edition and a digital edition.
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Geographic Location of Sales/Subscriptions: For the avoidance of doubt, the geographic location of a sale or
subscription shall be the billing address of the customer. i.e. if a US company orders 100 subscriptions, and the
billing address in the US, then all 100 subscriptions will be counted in the US figures, regardless of whether that
company has international employees who may have access to those subscriptions.
Home Delivery/Subscriptions: Purchased by individuals at not less than lowest currency denomination (e.g. not less
than $0.01USD) in country sold. Includes copies served in a post expire status up to 90 days (known as “gracing”)
and copies purchased using frequent flyer or similar reward points.
Single Copy Sales: Single issues sold to individuals at not less than lowest currency denomination in the country
sold (e.g. not less than $0.01USD).
Corporate: Subscriptions sold to companies, at not less than lowest currency denomination in country sold (e.g.
not less than $0.01USD), for use by designated employees. All printed copies and licenses would be reported as
both sales and subscriptions. Managers review each sale to ensure pricing is in accord with established guidelines.
Education: Subscriptions sold to schools for use in the classroom by enrolled students. All printed copies and
licenses would be reported as both sales and subscriptions. Managers review each sale to ensure pricing is in
accordance with established guidelines.
Amenity: Copies purchased by hotels/airlines/railroads/retail locations, at not less than lowest denomination of
currency in the country sold (e.g. not less than $0.01USD), for distribution to guests/passengers/patrons.
Qualified: Includes the following categories of distribution:
1. Copies made available to DJ employees
2. Copies ordered by schools for use in the classroom
3. Subscriptions targeted to specific individuals
a. Americas – reward for professors who attain a specific level of student subscription purchases.
b. Americas – individuals who are former subscribers to The Wall Street Journal
c. Europe – C Suite executives
Targeted subscribers have the option to opt-out of their subscriptions.
Copies for which no payment is received (“frees”) are restricted. For the period of this Report the volume of frees
is less than 5% of Global Sales and Global Subscriptions.
Digital Subscriptions: Delivered to subscribers of all products in one of two forms:
 Digital Replica – a complete reproduction of the printed edition of the newspaper. Currently used in the
Asia Edition.
 Digital Non-Replica – an edition that maintains the basic identity of the newspaper/magazine with similar
editorial/advertising content. All editions of The Wall Street Journal (Americas, Asia, Europe) along with
Barron’s and Financial News (including Private Equity News) have this type of digital edition. Digital NonReplica includes eReader (Kindle/Nook) subscriptions for WSJ and Barron’s.
 MarketWatch newsletters are delivered in the digital form only.
Mobile Apps: Where deals are made with third parties for distribution of Dow Jones mobile products (smartphone
or tablet), users who register for the products will be considered both sales and subscriptions, only at the point of
registration by the individual, not at the point of contract for the total number of contracted sales/subscriptions.
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Copies that meet the definitions above are included in the Sales and Subscriptions Report. On occasion
management may elect not to claim and report the maximum possible number of copies, to better reflect longterm trends.
This methodology may be updated as required. Updates to the methodology will be required when definitions
change; when publications are added or deleted; or for clarification.
Copies of previous methodologies and PwC independent assurance opinions are available upon request.
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Independent assurance report to the directors of Dow Jones International
Limited
We have been engaged by the directors of Dow Jones International Limited (the “Company” or “Dow Jones”) to perform an independent limited
assurance engagement over the application of the Company’s methodology (the “Methodology”) in the preparation and reporting of the data (the
“Data”) in the Dow Jones Global Sales and Subscriptions Report (the “Report”) for the period from 29 December 2014 to 29 March 2015. The scope of
our work is set out in the engagement letter dated 22 October 2014.
Respective responsibilities of the Directors and PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
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The directors of the Company are responsible for establishing an appropriate methodology (the “Methodology”) (available on the
Company’s website at http://new.dowjones.com/about/about-us/) to meet the needs of intended users in respect of their Report, for
selecting dates for the reporting of the Data and for ensuring that the Data is prepared and reported in accordance with the Methodology.
The Data comprises:
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paid and non-paid print and digital (i) average issue sales, and (ii) subscriptions for The Wall Street Journal (Americas, Europe and Asia);
Barron’s; Financial News (including Private Equity News); and MarketWatch (digital only) for the period from 29 December 2014 to 29
March 2015;
sales categories include paid home delivery, single copy sales, corporate, amenity and verified;
subscription categories include paid individual subscriptions and licence agreements for students/corporates.
Our responsibility is to express a conclusion to the directors on the application of the Methodology in the preparation of their Report based on the
results of our work referred to below. Our assurance report, including the conclusion, has been prepared for and only for the directors of the Company
as a body to assist the directors in assessing and reporting subscription and average issue sales figures. We permit the publication of our report to assist
the directors in demonstrating that they have discharged their governance responsibilities by commissioning an independent assurance report in
respect of the Data in the Report without accepting or assuming responsibility for any other purpose or to anyone other than the directors as a body and
the Company for our work, for this report or for the conclusion that we have formed, save where expressly agreed by our prior consent in writing.
Basis of conclusion
We conducted our engagement in accordance with International Standard on Assurance Engagements 3000 (Revised) Assurance Engagements other
than Audits and Reviews of Historical Financial Information (ISAE 3000) issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board. We
planned and performed our work so as to obtain all the information and explanations which we considered necessary in order to provide us with
sufficient evidence to express a conclusion on the application of the Methodology in the preparation of the Data in the Report. Our work was limited to
examining the relevant activities undertaken by the Company and its suppliers.
Our work included:
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Examining the Methodology and assessing key assumptions and limitations;
Based on that understanding, assessing the risks that management’s preparation of the Data in their Report may be materially misstated;
Responding to assessed risks, including developing our overall responses, and determining the nature, timing and extent of further
procedures;
Obtaining an understanding of the in-house IT systems that hold sales and subscription records;
Testing the accuracy of the sales and subscription data back to evidence of payment and delivery where appropriate;
Checking that the sales and subscription data is accurately reported in management’s Report;
Evaluating, on a test basis, the sufficiency and appropriateness of supporting evidence;
Analytical procedures including comparisons of performance over the preceding quarters; and
Enquiries of relevant management.
A limited assurance engagement is substantially less in scope than a reasonable assurance engagement under ISAE 3000. For example, our work on
this engagement excluded procedures such as testing controls effectiveness.
Conclusion
Based on the results of our work, nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believe that the Data in the Dow Jones Global Sales and
Subscriptions Report for the period 29 December 2014 to 29 March 2015 has not been prepared, in all material respects, in accordance with the
Methodology.
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
Chartered Accountants
London, UK
18 May 2015
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