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UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

 


 

FORM 10-K

 


 

x ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

 

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2004

 

OR

 

¨ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

 

For the transition period from              to             

 

Commission file number 1-7564

 


 

DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

 


 

DELAWARE   13-5034940

(State or other jurisdiction of

incorporation or organization)

 

(I.R.S. Employer

Identification No.)

 

200 LIBERTY STREET, NEW YORK, NEW YORK 10281

(Address of principal executive offices)(Zip Code)

 

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (212) 416-2000

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

 

Title of each class   Name of each exchange on which registered
Common Stock $1.00 par value   New York Stock Exchange

 

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

Class B Common Stock $1.00 par value

(Title of class)

 


 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    YES  x    NO  ¨

 

Indicate by a check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the registrant’s knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  ¨

 

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).     YES  x    NO  ¨

 

Aggregate market value of common stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant at January 31, 2005 was approximately $1,993,000,000.

 

The number of shares outstanding of each of the registrant’s classes of common stock on January 31, 2005: 61,493,160 shares of Common Stock and 20,590,564 shares of Class B Common Stock.

 

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

 

Part III incorporates information from certain portions of the registrant’s definitive Proxy Statement for the 2005 annual meeting of stockholders to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days after the close of the fiscal year.

 



Table of Contents

DOW JONES & COMPANY, INC.

FORM 10-K

FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2004

INDEX

 

          PAGE

PART I

         

ITEM 1.

   Business    3

ITEM 2.

   Properties    8

ITEM 3.

   Legal Proceedings    9

ITEM 4.

   Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders    9

Executive Officers of the Registrant

   9

PART II

         

ITEM 5.

   Market for the Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities    10

ITEM 6.

   Selected Financial Data    11

ITEM 7.

   Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations    12

ITEM 8.

   Financial Statements and Supplementary Data    38

ITEM 9.

   Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure    72

ITEM 9A.

   Controls and Procedures    72

ITEM 9B.

   Other Information    72

PART III

         

ITEM 10.

   Directors and Executive Officers of the Registrant    72

ITEM 11.

   Executive Compensation    73

ITEM 12.

   Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management    73

ITEM 13.

   Certain Relationships and Related Transactions    73

ITEM 14.

   Principal Accounting Fees and Services    73

PART IV

         

ITEM 15.

   Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules    74

Signatures

   77

 

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PART I

 

ITEM 1. BUSINESS.

 

We are a provider of global business and financial news and information through newspapers, newswires, magazines, the Internet, indexes, television and radio. In addition to The Wall Street Journal and our international and online editions, we publish Barron’s, Dow Jones Newswires and Dow Jones Indexes. We also provide news and information of general interest to local communities through our Ottaway group of community newspapers throughout the U.S. We are co-owner with Reuters Group of Factiva, with Hearst of SmartMoney and with NBC Universal of the CNBC television operations throughout Asia and Europe. We also provide news content to CNBC and radio stations in the U.S.

 

We have determined the following three reportable segments based on the manner in which we manage our business: print publishing, electronic publishing and general-interest community newspapers. Over the three years ended December 2004, approximately 60% of our revenues have been derived from the print publishing segment, with the remaining 40% divided almost equally between our general-interest community newspapers and our electronic publishing segments. In addition, the Company reports certain administrative activities under the corporate segment. Financial information about operating segments and geographic areas is incorporated by reference to Note 13 to the financial statements of this report.

 

The Company’s principal executive offices are located at 200 Liberty Street, New York, New York, 10281.

 

The Company makes available all of its annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to such reports free of charge through its Internet Web site at www.dowjones.com. These reports are also available on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Internet Web site at www.sec.gov.

 

 

EMPLOYEES

 

At December 31, 2004, the Company employed 7,143 full-time employees compared with 6,975 full-time employees at December 31, 2003 and 6,816 at December 31, 2002. The increase in full-time employees in 2004 was largely the result of acquisitions.

 

 

PRINT PUBLISHING

 

Print publishing, which is largely comprised of the global print editions of The Wall Street Journal, publishes business and financial news and information in the U.S., Europe, Asia and Latin America and on CNBC television. The Journal utilizes a global management structure with shared news flows and workforce and a global advertising customer base and pricing. Through a licensing agreement with NBC Universal, the Journal provides branding, news content and on-air expertise to CNBC as a further extension of The Wall Street Journal brand and the content it produces. Print publishing also includes our Barron’s weekly magazine.

 

Our overall performance in print publishing is largely dependent on the operating performance of the global Wall Street Journal (including its extended U.S. television brand and content) which in turn is largely dependent on B2B advertising revenue, particularly from the financial and technology sectors.

 

U.S. Publications

 

The Wall Street Journal, our flagship publication, is one of the country’s largest daily newspapers with average print circulation of 1,810,000 in 2004. The Journal’s three major national editions are printed at 17 printing plants located throughout the U.S. The Journal also sells regional advertising in 18 regional editions.

 

The Wall Street Journal has an overall daily print capacity of 96 pages, including 24 pages of color. In addition to its business coverage, the Journal also covers the “business of life” with its Personal Journal section which launched in 2002 and runs every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and Weekend Journal section, which debuted in 1998 and runs every Friday and includes pages devoted to travel, wine, sports, shopping, residential real estate and the arts. The Journal also publishes special reports at various times of the year on topics such as technology, personal finance and executive compensation, e-commerce and health and medicine as well as demographically targeted sections devoted to subjects of retirement and small business.

 

 

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In September 2004, we announced the September 2005 launch of the Weekend Edition of The Wall Street Journal, which is a key element of our 2005 to 2007 strategic plan. We expect the launch of the Weekend Edition will build off the success of our Weekend and Personal Journal sections in attracting more consumer-oriented advertisers and reducing our reliance over time on B2B financial and technology advertising. The Weekend Edition will be delivered to readers at home on the weekend, enabling advertisers to reach readers in the right place at the right time, which is highly conducive to influencing their consumer spending decisions.

 

The Journal reaches additional readers through The Wall Street Journal Sunday, which focuses on personal finance and careers and is published once a week in the business sections of local newspapers with combined circulation of about 10.7 million in more than 80 community newspapers.

 

The Journal production process employs electronic pagination and satellite transmission of page images to outlying printing plants to enable early delivery of fresher content to the majority of our readers.

 

The Wall Street Journal is delivered principally in three ways. Each business day, approximately 124,000 copies of The Wall Street Journal are sold at newsstands. Most home and office subscription deliveries are handled through our National Delivery Service, Inc. subsidiary which in 2004 provided early morning delivery to about 1.3 million, or 83%, of The Wall Street Journal’s subscribers each publishing day. The balance of The Wall Street Journal’s home and office deliveries is made by second class postal service.

 

Barron’s, the Dow Jones Business and Financial Weekly, is a weekly magazine with average circulation in 2004 of 299,000 that caters to financial professionals, individual investors and others interested in financial markets. Barron’s is printed in twelve of The Wall Street Journal’s 17 printing plants. It is delivered by second-class postal service and through National Delivery Service with about 60,000 newsstand copies sold each week.

 

The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition is published nine times during the school year and is read by an estimated 750,000 students every month during the academic year in more than 5,300 middle-school and high-school classrooms throughout the U.S. Individuals, organizations and corporations sponsor more than one-third of all subscriptions and schools sponsor the remainder. The Wall Street Journal Campus Edition is included in college newspapers throughout the U.S. and includes the week’s top business news and feature stories.

 

International Publications

 

The Wall Street Journal Europe, which had an average circulation in 2004 of 87,000, is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium and printed in Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and Israel. It is available on the day of publication in continental Europe, the United Kingdom, and parts of the Middle East and North Africa. Starting in 2003, the content of the international editions of The Wall Street Journal added news and opinion articles from The Washington Post.

 

The Asian Wall Street Journal, which had an average circulation of 80,000 in 2004, is headquartered in Hong Kong and printed in Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, the Philippines, Korea and Indonesia. It has the largest advertising market share of any pan-regional business newspaper in Asia.

 

We also publish The Wall Street Journal Special Editions, which are a collection of Journal pages in local languages distributed as part of 36 newspapers in 34 countries. The Wall Street Journal Americas, serving Central and South America, is the centerpiece of the Special Editions published in Spanish and Portuguese in 18 leading Latin America newspapers.

 

In the fourth quarter of 2004, we announced that the Far Eastern Economic Review, a Hong Kong based newsweekly magazine, would change its format to a monthly periodical of issues and ideas largely written by Asian opinion leaders from the fields of politics, business and academics. The first issue of the Far Eastern Economic Review in its new format was published in December 2004. This repositioning resulted in a workforce reduction of approximately 80 employees and reduced costs by approximately $3 million.

 

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ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING

 

Electronic publishing includes the operations of Dow Jones Newswires, Consumer Electronic Publishing and Dow Jones Indexes/Ventures. Consumer Electronic Publishing includes the results of WSJ.com, its related vertical sites, our consumer electronic licensing and radio businesses and since its acquisition in January 2005, MarketWatch, which includes internet, licensing, radio and newswires operations. Revenues in the electronic publishing segment are mainly subscription based and comprised about 20% of our revenues over the three years ended in 2004.

 

Dow Jones Newswires

 

Dow Jones Newswires is the premier provider of real-time, comprehensive business news and information for financial professionals around the world. Its news is displayed on approximately 298,000 English-language terminals worldwide providing users with real-time information on equity, fixed income, foreign exchange, commodities and energy markets. Dow Jones Newswires has a dedicated staff of more than 900 journalists in addition to drawing on the global resources of The Wall Street Journal and the Associated Press (“AP”). Newswires also distributes selected portions of its content to the retail customers of on-line brokers.

 

Dow Jones News Service is North America’s leading source of business and financial news on U.S. and Canadian companies and markets for brokerage firms, banks, investment companies and other businesses. Capital Markets Report covers global debt and money markets. Corporate Filings Alert provides real-time news covering SEC filings, bankruptcy courts and government agencies.

 

The Dow Jones Economic Report and the Dow Jones Financial Wire, which are produced outside the United States, provide international economic, business and financial news to subscribers in 71 countries. In addition to these two broad international newswires, Newswires publishes specialized wires dedicated to the coverage of European and Asian equities, banking and foreign exchange markets as well as the World Equities Report, which serves U.S. institutions investing in international markets.

 

Dow Jones Newswires also publishes on its own or with local partners, in Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian, German and Russian. In April 2004, we acquired the remaining interest in the news operations of Vereinigte Wirtschaftsdienste GmbH (“vwd”), a German local-language news service, for $12.1 million. Previously, we were a minority shareholder in vwd.

 

On March 19, 2004, we acquired Alternative Investor Group for $85 million, a company serving the private equity and venture capital markets with newsletters, conferences and databases. Alternative Investor was integrated with Dow Jones Newswires, its newsletters division and Technologic Partners business, which we acquired in late 2003, to form Dow Jones Financial Information Services.

 

In 2004, Dow Jones Newswires won many accolades including Technology Journalist of the Year, Excellence in Wire Service Reporting and a Codie Award from the Software and Information Industry Association. Also, for the second year in a row, Dow Jones Newswires was named Inside Market Data’s News Provider of the Year.

 

Consumer Electronic Publishing

 

The Wall Street Journal Online (“WSJ.com”), introduced in 1996, is a paid online subscription site that offers continuously updated coverage of business news both in the U.S. and abroad. WSJ.com content comprises the global resources of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires as well as its own dedicated journalists. In addition to continuously updated exclusive real-time news and scoops, subscribers have access to the full text of each day’s global editions of the Journal, more than 30,000 in-depth company background reports, an archive of Journal and Dow Jones news articles, and personalized news and stock portfolios. WSJ.com had 712,000 subscribers at the end of 2004 and was the largest paid subscription news site on the Internet.

 

On January 21, 2005, we completed the acquisition of MarketWatch for a purchase price of approximately $538 million, including transaction costs. MarketWatch is a leading provider of business news, financial information and analytical tools and operates two award-winning Web sites: MarketWatch.com and BigCharts.com. These free, advertising-supported Web sites serve approximately seven million unique visitors per month with timely market news and information. MarketWatch also operates the MarketWatch Information Services group, which is a leading licensor of market news, data, investment analysis tools and other online applications to financial services firms, media companies, and corporations.

 

 

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We believe that the MarketWatch acquisition will complement The Wall Street Journal Online network, which provides premium business news to about three million unique visitors per month. By combining the traffic of The Wall Street Journal network of Web sites and MarketWatch, our Web sites are expected to have close to nine million unduplicated unique visitors per month. We also expect that the licensing businesses of MarketWatch will provide additional assets, such as online charting and other tools, which will extend the reach of our business-to-business licensing operations.

 

Other consumer sites in The Wall Street Journal Network include OpinionJournal.com, which provides commentary on global issues from The Wall Street Journal editorial page; CareerJournal.com, which gives career guidance and job-search services for executives; StartupJournal.com, the premier Web site for entrepreneurs seeking guidance on starting or buying a business or franchise; CollegeJournal.com, which provides guidance and job-search services for future business leaders; and RealEstateJournal.com, a comprehensive guide to commercial and residential property.

 

Consumer Electronic Publishing also includes our radio/audio business and our consumer electronic licensing division, which offers electronic rights to use Dow Jones’ content. The Wall Street Journal Radio Network produces and distributes late-breaking business reports during the week to 229 radio stations across the country, covering 92% of the population.

 

Dow Jones Indexes/Ventures

 

In 1997, we began licensing the Dow Jones Industrial Averages as well as other indexes as the basis for trading options, futures, unit trusts, annuities, exchange traded funds, mutual funds, derivatives and specialized structured products. Dow Jones Indexes also maintains a variety of specialty indexes, such as the Dow Jones-AIG Commodity Index, the Dow Jones Select Dividend Index and the Dow Jones Islamic Market Indexes. Dow Jones Indexes now offers more than 4,000 indexes. During 2004, Dow Jones Indexes launched a new family of hedge fund indexes and also partnered with Wilshire Associates to provide the Dow Jones Wilshire index family, which features the Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 and is expanding to include a complete global family of country, region, sector, cap-range and style indexes.

 

Dow Jones Ventures includes our reprints/permissions. The reprints/permissions business sells print or electronic reprints of The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s stories.

 

 

COMMUNITY NEWSPAPERS

 

Community newspapers consists of our wholly-owned Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. subsidiary. Revenues in this segment are largely dependent on local consumer-based advertising revenue and comprised about 20% of our revenues over the past three years.

 

Our Ottaway community newspapers segment serves relatively small, self-contained communities, outside the heavy competitive pressures of large metropolitan papers and other media. In 2002, we divested five low-growth papers, non-strategically located papers, which provided after-tax proceeds of $235 million and utilized $190 million of capital loss carryforwards. In 2003, we acquired the faster growing, more strategically located The Record of Stockton, California.

 

Ottaway publications now include 15 general-interest dailies, published in nine states: California, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Oregon and Pennsylvania. Average 2004 circulation of the dailies was approximately 436,000; Sunday circulation for our newspapers was approximately 483,000. Ottaway also publishes more than 30 weekly newspapers and “shoppers.” The primary delivery method for the newspapers is by carrier delivery.

 

 

STRATEGIC ALLIANCES (Included in Equity in Earnings (Losses) of Associated Companies)

 

Dow Jones Reuters Business Interactive LLC (Factiva) is a 50/50 joint venture launched in mid-1999 with Reuters Group Plc. Factiva is the number one provider of global news and business information to corporate end users and holds the number two position, based on revenue, in the archival business news and information marketplace. Factiva’s business information sources include exclusive third party access to Dow Jones and Reuters Newswires and The Wall Street Journal, plus nearly 9,000 sources from around the world. These sources provide current news, historical articles, local-language articles, market research and investment analyst reports, and stock quotes.

 

CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia Pacific are 50/50 joint ventures between Dow Jones and NBC Universal (NBC). In early 1998, NBC and Dow Jones re-launched their business information channels in Europe and Asia Pacific as CNBC, a service of NBC and Dow Jones. These overseas networks reach more than 120 million households on a full-time basis.

 

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SmartMoney is a 50/50 joint venture with Hearst Corp. SmartMoney magazine, The Wall Street Journal Magazine of Personal Business, featuring sections on personal investing, spending and saving money, has circulation of more than 800,000 copies. SmartMoney also includes SmartMoney.com and SmartMoney Custom Solutions, a custom publishing business.

 

Vedomosti, a joint venture owned equally by Dow Jones, Pearson PLC and Independent Media, was introduced in 1999. Vedomosti, considered the only independent business newspaper in Russia, is published Monday through Friday. Circulation reached 66,000 in 2004, with original content created by 80 local reporters and editors and content from The Wall Street Journal and The Financial Times translated into Russian.

 

STOXX, Ltd. is a joint venture owned equally by Dow Jones and the leading exchanges of Germany (Deutsche Borse) and Switzerland (Swiss Exchange).

 

In January 2004, Dow Jones and Bennett Coleman & Company Ltd., publisher of the Times of India and the Economic Times, entered into an agreement on a new joint venture to publish The Wall Street Journal for India. Subject to Indian government approval, Dow Jones will own 26% (maximum foreign ownership permitted in India) and Bennett Coleman would own the remaining 74% and launch The Wall Street Journal for India in 2005, using the Journal’s global content.

 

In December 2003, we and the von Holtzbrinck Group exchanged equity shareholdings so as to increase our interest in The Wall Street Journal Europe to 90% from 51% and reduce our ownership of the von Holtzbrinck Group’s business daily, Handelsblatt, to 10% from 22%, with news and advertising relationships continuing. The Company and the von Holtzbrinck Group are in negotiations to further exchange, in 2005, our cross shareholdings so as to return the Company to full ownership of The Wall Street Journal Europe and of its 41% interest in HB-Dow Jones S.A. and to eliminate the Company’s 10% ownership of Handelsblatt.

 

Other equity investments include HB-Dow Jones S.A., a part-owner of Economia, a publishing company in the Czech Republic; CareerCast, Inc., a leading supplier of data services to employers and online career sites; and F.F. Soucy Inc. & Partners, L.P., a newsprint mill in Canada.

 

 

RAW MATERIALS

 

The primary raw material used by the Company is newsprint. In 2004, approximately 219,000 metric tons were consumed. Newsprint was purchased principally from eight suppliers. The Company is a limited partner in F.F. Soucy, Inc. & Partners, L.P., Riviere du Loup, Quebec, Canada. F.F. Soucy furnished 18% of total newsprint requirements in 2004. The Company has signed long-term contracts with certain newsprint suppliers, including F.F. Soucy, for a substantial portion of its annual newsprint requirements. For many years the available sources of newsprint have been adequate to supply the Company’s needs.

 

 

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

 

Research and development expenses, which primarily relate to software development for various operations of the Company, were $32 million in 2004, $29.7 million in 2003 and $31.2 million in 2002.

 

 

COMPETITION

 

Dow Jones print publishing businesses compete with a wide range of information providers in many different channels of distribution. All metropolitan general interest newspapers and many small city or suburban papers carry business and financial content as do many Internet-based services as well as television and radio. In addition, specialized magazines in the business and financial field, as well as general news magazines publish substantial amounts of business-related material. The Journal also competes for advertising with non-business publications offering audiences of similar demographic quality, such as technology and lifestyle magazines. Nearly all of these services seek audiences and seek to sell advertising, making them competitive with Dow Jones’ publications and services.

 

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The Company’s newswires compete with other global financial newswires including Reuters Group PLC, Bloomberg L.P. and other organizations that publish financial news. The Company’s newswires maintain a stronger market position in North America than internationally.

 

Consumer Electronic Publishing competes with other Web sites that offer continuously updated coverage of business news as well as licensing of electronic content. Unlike WSJ.com, competitors do not, for the most part, utilize a full online paid subscription model, and most remain free sites. Competitors include FT.com, New York Times Digital, TheStreet.com, Bloomberg, Forbes.com, Yahoo!Finance, CNET, AOL/CNNfn and MSNMoney/CNBC.

 

Dow Jones’ index-licensing business competes with various organizations that develop and license indexes, including Standard & Poor’s, The Financial Times, and Morgan Stanley/Capital International.

 

Ottaway Newspapers competes with the metropolitan general-interest newspapers, and other community newspapers as well as radio and television stations in their respective local markets.

 

Factiva competes with various business information service providers, including Dialog Corp., a division of The Thomson Corporation; and Lexis-Nexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Plc. Factiva also competes with various online, Web-based information services.

 

The Company’s international television ventures compete with various international satellite networks that not only specialize in general news but also provide business programming. Also, individual television stations, networks and cable channels in each country broadcast programming that competes for advertising and the attention of viewers in their respective markets.

 

 

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES.

 

Dow Jones operates 17 plants with an aggregate of approximately one million square feet for the printing of its domestic publications. Printing plants are located in Palo Alto and Riverside, California; Denver, Colorado; Orlando, Florida; LaGrange, Georgia; Naperville and Highland, Illinois; Des Moines, Iowa; White Oak, Maryland; Chicopee, Massachusetts; South Brunswick, New Jersey; Charlotte, North Carolina; Bowling Green, Ohio; Sharon, Pennsylvania; Dallas and Beaumont, Texas; and Federal Way, Washington. All plants include office space. All are owned in fee except the Palo Alto, California, plant, which is located on 8.5 acres under a lease to Dow Jones for 50 years, expiring in 2015.

 

Other facilities, owned in fee with a total of approximately one million square feet, house news, sales, administrative, technology and operational staff. These facilities are located in South Brunswick, New Jersey and Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. The Company has leased about 200,000 square feet of its office space in South Brunswick to other companies.

 

Dow Jones occupies two major leased facilities in New York City, including leasing about 315,000 square feet downtown at the World Financial Center, which primarily houses editorial and executive staff, and 98,000 square feet at a separate midtown location for advertising sales staff. The Company also leases other business and editorial offices in numerous locations around the world, including 92,000 square feet in Jersey City, New Jersey, 42,000 square feet in three locations in London and 58,000 square feet in three locations in Hong Kong.

 

Ottaway Newspapers operates in 21 locations, including a 24,000 square foot administrative headquarters in Campbell Hall, New York. These facilities are located in Santa Cruz and Stockton, California; Danbury, Connecticut; Kennebunk and York, Maine; Hyannis, New Bedford and Nantucket, Massachusetts; Traverse City, Michigan; Stratham and Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Middletown, Oneonta, and Plattsburgh, New York; Medford and Ashland, Oregon; and Stroudsburg, Danville and Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Local printing facilities, which include office space in certain locations, total approximately 900,000 square feet. All of these facilities are owned in fee, with the exception of the Maine facilities, which are leased.

 

The Company believes that its current facilities are suitable and adequate, well maintained and in good condition. Older facilities have been modernized and expanded to meet present and anticipated needs.

 

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ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS.

 

On November 13, 2001, the Company instituted a lawsuit in the Supreme Court of the State of New York against Market Data Corp. (MDC) and Cantor Fitzgerald Securities (together with its affiliates, Cantor) seeking a declaratory judgment with respect to the Company’s obligations, if any, under a guarantee issued to MDC and Cantor. The guarantee relates to certain annual “minimum payments” owed by Telerate under certain conditions for data acquired by Telerate from Cantor Fitzgerald and MDC under contracts entered into when Telerate was a subsidiary of Dow Jones, and is described in Management’s Discussion and Analysis.

 

In this lawsuit the Company has asked the court to find that the Company does not and will not owe any payment under the contract guarantee through October 2006. In the alternative, the Company has asked the court to find that if any amount is owed, it must be reduced by amounts that Cantor and MDC receive or should have received from other distribution of the data after Telerate stopped receiving the government securities data from Cantor and MDC. MDC has asserted counterclaims demanding payment of $10.2 million (allegedly the balance owed by Telerate on November 15, 2001), interest, attorneys’ fees, specific performance of the guarantee, and a declaratory judgment as to the validity and interpretation of the guarantee through October 2006.

 

Cantor also commenced a separate lawsuit in the Supreme Court of the State of New York (since consolidated with the Company’s case) seeking payment of $10 million (allegedly the balance of the November 2001 minimum payment), payment of $250 million in breach of contract damages, specific performance of the guarantee, a declaration that the guarantee remains in full force and effect, payment of approximately $16 million allegedly owed by Telerate and guaranteed by the Company in the guarantee for the distribution of certain other data, attorneys’ fees, interest, and other relief.

 

The trial court in January 2003 denied motions by each of the parties that their own claims for relief be granted and that competing claims be dismissed. Appeals from those decisions were not pursued, and discovery has concluded. Dispositive motions are being briefed, with argument before the court scheduled for the first quarter of 2005. The trial is currently scheduled to begin in June 2005.

 

 

ITEM 4. SUBMISSION OF MATTERS TO A VOTE OF SECURITY HOLDERS.

 

Not applicable.

 

 

Executive Officers of the Registrant

 

Each executive officer is elected annually to serve at the pleasure of the Board of Directors.

 

Mr. Zannino, Mr. Vieth and Mr. Stern have each been employed by the Company for fewer than five years.

 

Peter R. Kann, age 62, Chairman of the Board since July 1991, Chief Executive Officer since January 1991, served as Publisher of The Wall Street Journal from January 1989 to July 2002, President from July 1989 to July 1991 and Chief Operating Officer from July 1989 to December 1990, Executive Vice President from 1985 to 1989 and Associate Publisher of The Wall Street Journal from 1979 to 1988. Mr. Kann, who is the spouse of Ms. House, joined the Company in 1964.

 

Richard F. Zannino, age 46, Chief Operating Officer since July 2002, Executive Vice President since joining the Company in February 2001 and served as Chief Financial Officer from February 2001 until July 2002. Before joining Dow Jones, Mr. Zannino was Executive Vice President of Liz Claiborne, Inc., having joined in 1998 as Senior Vice President, Finance & Administration and Chief Financial Officer. Previously, Mr. Zannino had worked briefly as Chief Financial Officer of General Signal Corporation, prior to that company’s sale and before that for five years at Saks Fifth Avenue, ultimately as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.

 

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Executive Officers of the Registrant (continued)

 

Joseph A. Stern, age 55, appointed General Counsel, Vice President and Secretary beginning in February 2005, to replace Peter G. Skinner who retired as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary as of December 31, 2004. Before joining Dow Jones, Mr. Stern was a partner at Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP, the Company’s primary outside corporate law firm and has advised the Company on a variety of legal issues. Mr. Stern joined Fried Frank in 1979 and became a partner there in 1984.

 

L. Gordon Crovitz, age 46, Senior Vice President and President, Electronic Publishing and Senior Vice President/Electronic Publishing since October 1998, Vice President/Planning and Development from November 1997 to October 1998. Managing Director for Telerate’s Asia/Pacific operation from September 1996 to November 1997. Editor and Publisher of Review Publishing Company from July 1993 to September 1996. Mr. Crovitz joined the Company in 1981.

 

Christopher W. Vieth, age 40, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer since July 2002 and Vice President, Finance from March 2001 to July 2002 and Corporate Controller after joining the Company in July 2000 up until July 2002. Prior to joining Dow Jones, Mr. Vieth had been Vice President and Corporate Controller of Barnes and Noble, Inc. since May 1999. He joined Barnes and Noble in December 1995 as Director of Finance. From 1987 through 1995, Mr. Vieth worked at Amerada Hess Corporation.

 

Karen House, age 56, Senior Vice President and Publisher of all print editions of The Wall Street Journal since July 2002 and President of Dow Jones’ International Group from January 1995 to July 2002, Vice President of the International Group from March 1989 to January 1995. Ms. House, who is the spouse of Mr. Kann, joined the Company in 1974.

 

Paul Steiger, age 61, Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal since June 1991 and Vice President of The Wall Street Journal since May 1992, Deputy Managing Editor from April 1985 to June 1991 and Assistant Managing Editor from 1983 to April 1985. Mr. Steiger joined the Company in 1966.

 

 

PART II.

 

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR THE REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES.

 

The Company’s common stock is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The class B common stock is not traded. The approximate number of stockholders of record as of January 31, 2005 was 10,673 for common stock and 3,670 for class B common stock. The Company paid $1.00 per share in dividends in 2004 and in 2003.

 

     Market Price 2004

  

Dividends

Paid 2004


   Market Price 2003

   Dividends
Paid 2003


Quarters


   High

   Low

      High

   Low

  

First

   $ 52.74    $ 45.10    $ .25    $ 46.12    $ 33.25    $ .25

Second

     49.68      44.27      .25      48.10      35.06      .25

Third

     45.20      39.50      .25      49.30      37.70      .25

Fourth

     45.24      40.44      .25      53.62      46.45      .25

 

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

 

In 1998, the Company’s board of directors authorized the repurchase of $800 million of the Company’s common stock and in September 2000 authorized the repurchase of an additional $500 million of the Company’s common stock. As of December 31, 2004, approximately $326.4 million remained under board authorization for share repurchases. The Company did not repurchase any shares of its common stock in 2004.

 

 

10


Table of Contents

ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA.

 

See Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations for a discussion of factors that affect the comparability of the information reflected in this table. The following table shows selected financial data for the most recent five years:

 

     Fiscal Year Ended December 31,

 

(dollars in thousands, except per share amounts)

 

   2004(1)

    2003(1)

    2002(1)

    2001(2)

    2000(3)

 

Income Statement Data:

                                        

Revenues

                                        

Advertising

   $ 946,325     $ 871,817     $ 877,681     $ 1,052,322     $ 1,467,244  

Information services

     328,708       286,863       281,220       289,321       281,366  

Circulation and other

     396,425       389,805       400,272       431,440       454,008  
    


 


 


 


 


Total revenues

     1,671,458       1,548,485       1,559,173       1,773,083       2,202,618  

Operating expenses

     1,509,284       1,405,572       1,484,090       1,662,884       1,704,392  
    


 


 


 


 


Operating income

     162,174       142,913       75,083       110,199       498,226  

Other income (deductions)

     (4,048 )     79,390       190,164       (1,185 )     (420,231 )

Income taxes

     58,578       51,704       63,741       10,794       196,957  
    


 


 


 


 


Net income (loss)

   $ 99,548     $ 170,599     $ 201,506     $ 98,220     $ (118,962 )
    


 


 


 


 


Earnings (loss) per share:

                                        

Basic

   $ 1.22     $ 2.09     $ 2.41     $ 1.15     $ (1.35 )

Diluted

     1.21       2.08       2.40       1.14       (1.35 )

Balance Sheet Data (at period end):

                                        

Cash and cash equivalents

   $ 17,237     $ 23,514     $ 39,346     $ 21,026     $ 49,347  

Total assets

     1,380,203       1,304,154       1,207,659       1,298,340       1,362,056  

Long-term debt

     135,845       153,110       92,937       173,958       150,865  

Stockholders’ equity

     150,543       129,661       30,571       41,777       158,768  

Other Cash Flow and Operating Data: