HONG KONG - Dow Jones
& Company, which publishes vital business and
financial news and information, announced that the Far
Eastern Economic Review will change its format from a
news weekly to a monthly magazine of issues and ideas,
largely written by Asian opinion leaders from the fields
of politics, business and academics.
The first
issue of the Review in its new format will be published
this December.
Dow Jones Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer Peter R Kann said: "The format change
will mark the start of a new chapter in the Review's
58-year history, even as we devote more of our
collective focus, efforts and resources to further
growing the market-leading Asian Wall Street Journal as
the Dow Jones flagship in Asia, and as an integral
component of the global Wall Street Journal franchise."
In announcing the format change, Kann explained
that nearly all other advertising-dependent news
weeklies based in Asia already have succumbed to
competition from more immediate media alternatives, and
that as a weekly, the review had lost money for the past
six years.
He expressed confidence in the
business model for the new monthly review, which will
continue to accept select advertising, but rely
primarily on circulation to a loyal and highly
influential readership across Asia.
Kann said 80
jobs would be lost as a result of the change to a
monthly format. The job losses represent about 10% of
the company's total Asia-based employees.
As a
result of the work force reductions, the company will
record a restructuring charge, recorded as a special
item, of approximately $3 million, or two cents per
share, in the fourth quarter of 2004.
The
company also said that the change to a monthly magazine
from a news weekly will be modestly accretive to
full-year 2005 earnings per share.
The new
version of the Review will be edited by Hugo Restall,
who until recently served as the editorial page editor
of The Asian Wall Street Journal.
In his first
"Editor's Letter" - to be published in the December
issue - Restall traces the review's history from its
1946 launch in Hong Kong by Austrian immigrant Eric
Halpern.
Halpern's editorial mission was "to
analyze and interpret financial, commercial and
industrial developments; collect economic news; and to
present views and opinions with the intent to improve
existing conditions."
In the December issue, Mr.
Restall rededicates the Review to these goals.
"The new Review will seek the most incisive and
provocative commentary from Asia's thought-leaders of
every ideological stripe, and will emphasize politics as
Asian nations take their rightful place on the world
stage," Restall said.
"In important ways, this
newest incarnation of the Review closely resembles the
original publication launched in 1946."
Current
Review subscribers will be sent the new magazine to the
equivalent value of the remainder of their present
subscriptions.
In addition to the Far Eastern
Economic Review, Dow Jones & Company publishes The
Wall Street Journal and its international and online
editions, Barron's, Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones
Indexes and the Ottaway group of community newspapers.
Dow Jones is co-owner with Reuters Group of Factiva,
with Hearst of SmartMoney and with NBC Universal of the
CNBC television operations in Asia and Europe. Dow Jones
also provides news content to CNBC and radio stations in
the US
(Asia Pulse/Business Wire)
Oct 29, 2004
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