Dow Jones aims to reduce reliance on print

By Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dow Jones & Co. which is becoming more reliant on digital publishing, aims to have less than half of its revenues come from print operations by 2009, its chief executive said on Wednesday.

Dow Jones is one of the few newspaper companies to have shown it can earn substantial revenue from the Internet, analysts say, with the Wall Street Journal Online and Marketwatch.com among its digital offerings.

"While we intend to remain leaders in print, there is no question that we must transform your company," Chief Executive Rich Zannino said at the company's annual meeting. "We can no longer afford to be as newspaper-centric as we have been in the past."

The meeting marked the departure of Chairman Peter Kann, who stepped down as CEO in 2006, and was punctuated by criticism from reporters and other staff over job cuts throughout the company.

"I think investors believe that the company is doing a very good job diversifying from an overwhelming reliance on print publishing to electronic publishing," Kann told Reuters.

Several employees, including recent Pulitzer prize winners Charles Forelle and James Bandler, took to the stage to lambaste company executives for cutting newsroom jobs.

"We've taken enormous risks for this newspaper," said reporter Michael Phillips, who has covered the conflict in Afghanistan, adding that staff was "so angry that Dow Jones managers are once again trying to cut our pay and benefits at the same time they are enriching themselves."

Union officials also criticized the company for what they said were its attempts to raise the cost of health benefits while offering insufficient pay raises.