Dow Jones Bets on the Net

When it comes to getting Web savvy, Dow Jones (DJ) will follow the Peacock instead of the Gray Lady.

At a town hall-style meeting with employees on Monday, Dow Jones CEO Rich Zannino cited General Electric's (GE) broadcast unit, NBC, as a company that's having more success adapting to the digital age than its newspaper counterpart, New York Times (NYT).

"What NBC is doing is the most instructive," said Zannino, according to a source at the company, referring to the network's focus on building Web-friendly content and aggressively driving viewers from its TV shows to its Web site.

"The least instructive has got to be what The New York Times is doing," said Zannino. "You can't just sit there and ignore [the changes in the media industry]. That appears to be what they're doing."

The publishing conglomerate held the meeting one week after detailing plans to shrink the size of its flagship newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, and devote more of the paper's space to analytical stories. In turn, the company is looking to use its Web site for reporting its breaking news stories.

"We have to transform Dow Jones" said Zannino.

While The Journal remains the nation's second-highest-circulation daily after USA Today, it has been striving to cut costs amid circulation declines and a weak advertising climate.

Beginning Jan. 2, Dow Jones is shrinking the width of the newspaper by 3 inches to an industry standard of 12 inches, reducing space in the newspaper devoted to news by 10%. The company expects the move will result in savings of $18 million a year.