Dow Jones projects $1 billion EBITDA within five years

• "You need premium news, you need premium data, you need premium analytics, you need premium convening power, and that's when you get a supreme network effect that that we are committed to deliver," Latour tells Axios.

By the numbers: Over the past five years, Dow Jones has made strategic investments to grow its digital subscriber base and expand its business intelligence offerings, surpassing key projections made during its last investor day in 2020.

• The company's digital subscription base has nearly doubled from 3.8 million in 2021 to more than 6 million in 2025.
• Its business intelligence units, which cover risk and compliance and energy, experienced double-digit revenue growth since 2018 and 2023, respectively.

State of play: The evolution of Dow Jones' portfolio has proven especially prescient in today's news cycle, Latour noted.

• Latour explained how the company's investments in business intelligence around energy and risk have proven apt as the war in the Middle East continues to put pressure on the world's oil supply and trade.

Between the lines: Under Latour's leadership, Dow Jones has made strategic investments to grow both its core news product and its business intelligence units.

• Latour told Axios in 2024 that the company has spent "well in excess of a billion dollars" on different data sets and firms related to coverage of energy transition in the past few years, including information services company OPIS and energy pricing and analysis firm Base Chemicals.
• Last year it made several more strategic acquisitions, including Eco-Movement, a data provider for electric vehicle charging stations, Dragonfly Intelligence, a geopolitical and security intelligence provider, and Oxford Analytica.
• It hired Emma Tucker as editor-in-chief of the Wall Street Journal in 2022. It recently added news veteran Scott Havens as chief growth officer.

Zoom out: Executives feel confident that Dow Jones can meet a more ambitious profit milestone in the next five years, in part thanks to the way it's positioning itself in the AI era.

• Thomson believes News Corp. will thrive because its assets provide invaluable input data for AI firms. "We're one of the few companies with a scope and a scale to be able to be a reliable supplier," he says.

• Earlier this month, News Corp. announced a licensing deal with Meta, reportedly worth $50 million annually. It also has an $250 million, five-year licensing deal with OpenAI.
• News Corp.'s book publishing unit, HarperCollins, will benefit significantly from the financial payout Anthropic owes book publishers and writers, Thomson noted.

The big picture: The success of Dow Jones has been a massive driver in News Corp.'s evolution.

• Dow Jones now represents the majority of profits for News Corp., and it's the fastest growing profit segment within News Corp.'s portfolio, per Thomson.
• With Dow Jones propelling its earnings, News Corp. has reported 11 straight quarters of year-over-year profit growth.
• News Corp.'s business is also far less dependent on print and advertising today than it used to be, thanks in large part to Dow Jones' investments in growing digital subscriptions and News Corp.'s divestiture of non-digital assets, such as regional newspapers.
• In 2014, News Corp.'s digital revenue represented 22% of its entire business, compared to 62% last year. Its overall percentage of revenue from advertising was 48% in 2014, compared to 16% last year.

What to watch: Thomson reiterated News Corp.'s commitment to owning Dow Jones, emphasizing that besides being a profit driver it also boosts audiences for its other properties like its digital real estate services sites.