Bridging Two Worlds: How Dow Jones’ Dual Market Strategy Drives Growth

While most media companies struggle to find their footing in a single market, Dow Jones plays in two. This unusual position has become their secret weapon, according to Chief Marketing Officer Sherry Weiss, who recently sat down with PressReader CEO Ruari Doyle on his “PressPectives” podcast.

Throughout their conversation, Weiss pulled back the curtain on how the company is using this unique market position to grow while many publishing houses scramble just to survive.

Playing Both Sides of the Field

“We’ve got something up our sleeve that most media companies don’t have,” Weiss told Doyle, leaning forward in her chair. “We play in the consumer space with the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, MarketWatch, and Investor’s Business Daily. But we’ve also got our fingers deep in the enterprise market through our risk and energy verticals.“

This dual presence creates unexpected synergies. Dow Jones maintains deep relationships with a vast majority of Fortune 500 banks globally, providing what Weiss describes as an “entree to sell our traditionally direct consumer products into enterprises as well.“

The approach recognizes a fundamental truth about modern media consumption: professionals don’t compartmentalize their information intake. “When you’re a professional engaging with a product, you don’t really distinguish between reading something on the subway that you pay for personally, and then going to the office and getting data through your business that’s also powered by Dow Jones,” Weiss noted. “It’s all one and the same.”

Banking on Different Experience

Weiss didn’t cut her teeth in publishing. She spent years in the trenches of consumer banking at Citi before jumping to the startup world at Jet.com. When asked if that made her job harder, she shook her head.

“Credit cards and news subscriptions aren’t as different as you’d think,” she said with a knowing smile. “Both businesses live and die by the same math – how many people you bring in the front door, how long they stick around, and how much they’re worth to you over time.”

Her experience in both large, regulated organizations and nimble startups has proven invaluable at Dow Jones. “I’ve needed both experiences to drive what we need to do,” Weiss said. “Taking tried-and-true strategies and tweaking them for the future.”

Church and State

The biggest culture shock for Weiss wasn’t deadlines or dealing with reporters. It was the invisible wall running through the building.

“In banking, marketing and product development are joined at the hip,” she explained. “At Dow Jones, we work in service of our newsroom, but we can’t tell them what to write. That wall between commercial and editorial – it’s sacred.”

Despite this traditional separation, Weiss highlighted the collaborative relationship with Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker as a key success factor. “Our editorial team’s involvement in our new brand campaign demonstrates the alignment of commercial and editorial goals while maintaining appropriate boundaries,” she said.

Making Business Personal

The centerpiece of Weiss’s strategy is plastered all over billboards and subway cars: “It’s Your Business.” The slogan didn’t come from a late-night brainstorm or executive mandate. It emerged from countless conversations with readers and non-readers alike who delivered a wake-up call to the marketing team.

“Trust is considered baseline,” Weiss explained. “What we heard from both customers and prospects was, ‘Don’t tell us to trust you – that should be baseline. Give us a reason why to trust you.’“

The platform emphasizes that the Wall Street Journal tells stories through a business lens while expanding the definition of what “business” means. “How you define business is much wider than what our name perhaps suggests. It’s much broader than just Wall Street.”

The campaign creatively connects real WSJ articles to everyday experiences, with examples like “make renters’ rights your business” and a hot dog truck featuring “hot dog economy’s your business.” This approach makes the journalism more accessible and relevant to audiences who might have previously dismissed the publication as irrelevant to their interests.

Numbers Never Sleep

Don’t let the creative campaigns fool you. Behind Weiss’s office door, screens flash with subscription numbers that would make a Silicon Valley startup jealous.

“My team knows the drill,” she said, tapping her watch. “We’re checking numbers daily, sometimes hourly. There’s no hiding from the data.”

Their focus extends beyond subscription numbers to encompass the complete customer journey. Key metrics include acquisition conversions, retention rates, engagement metrics like average active days, and customer satisfaction.

This analytical rigor has yielded impressive results: consumer products subscriptions up 9% and Wall Street Journal subscriptions up 4% year-over-year.

Fishing Where the Fish Are

The gray-haired Wall Street executive with his print Journal is still a cornerstone customer, but he’s not enough anymore. Weiss knows it.

“My kid wouldn’t pick up a newspaper if I paid him,” she admitted with a laugh. “So we’re on TikTok and YouTube, not because it’s trendy, but because that’s where tomorrow’s subscribers are hanging out.”

“Once you’ve acquired somebody, you can’t grow a business if you’re not retaining them,” Weiss noted. “We’re laser-focused on building habitual engagement that leads to long-term relationships.”

The launch of WSJ Plus exemplifies this strategy, aiming to deepen relationships with existing customers by offering a holistic view across all Dow Jones publications.

The Bot in the Room

When Doyle brought up AI, you could almost hear the collective gasp from newsrooms around the world. But Weiss didn’t flinch.

“Sure, it’s unsettling,” she admitted, “but so was the internet in 1995. We could wring our hands or roll up our sleeves. We chose the sleeves.”

The company is exploring how AI can scale creative strategies, help find new audiences, and enhance engagement through chatbots that drive traffic to owned properties. Rather than limiting AI applications to specialized teams, Dow Jones encourages exploration across the marketing organization.

The Power of a Handshake

Online subscriptions pay the bills, but Weiss hasn’t forgotten the magic of putting people in a room together.

“You should see what happens when we set up Journal House at Davos,” she said, eyes widening. “CEOs who wouldn’t return our calls suddenly can’t wait to chat with our reporters over coffee. Those conversations turn into subscriptions, partnerships, and sometimes front-page stories.”

The company recently dusted off the Wall Street Journal Leadership Institute too – another chance to turn digital relationships into real ones.

The Last Word

As the interview wrapped up, Doyle asked the question on everyone’s mind: how does a 135-year-old newspaper company survive another century?

Weiss paused, choosing her words carefully.

“We don’t chase every shiny object, but we don’t hide behind tradition either,” she said. “At the end of the day, we put our faith in good reporting. We believe our journalism speaks for itself. All we need to do is get it in front of more eyeballs and let readers decide.”

She leaned back in her chair, confident. “So far, they’re choosing to stick around.”

When the podcast wrapped up, one thing became clear: while other news outlets are cutting staff and closing shop, Dow Jones has found a way to grow by bridging two worlds. It’s a strategy that keeps one foot planted in the newsroom’s legacy of quality journalism, and the other stepping confidently into whatever comes next.