Dow Jones & Company is an American publishing and financial information firm.

The company was founded in 1882 by three reporters: Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser. Like The New York Times and the Washington Post, the company was in recent years publicly traded but privately controlled. The company was led by the Bancroft family, which effectively controlled 64% of all voting stock, before being acquired by News Corporation.

The company became a subsidiary of News Corporation after an extended takeover bid during 2007. 1 It was reported on the 1st of August 2007 that the bid had been successful after an extended period of uncertainty about shareholder agreement. The transaction was completed on December 13, 2007. It is worth US$5 billion or $60 a share, giving NewsCorp control of The Wall Street Journal and ending the Bancroft family's 105 years of ownership

Print Publishing

Its flagship publication, The Wall Street Journal, is a daily newspaper covering U.S. and international business and financial news and issues. It began publishing on July 8, 1889. Other versions of the Journal include:

• The Wall Street Journal Italy covering Italian business;
• The Wall Street Journal Europe covering European business;
• The Wall Street Journal Special Editions division publishes translations of articles for inclusion in local newspapers, notably in Latin America.

Sister publications of the Journal include Barron's Magazine, a weekly overview of the world economy and markets; the monthly journal Far Eastern Economic Review; and the consumer magazine SmartMoney in conjunction with the Hearst Corporation.

Dow Jones also owns Ottaway Newspapers, Inc., which publishes several community newspapers in the U.S.

Electronic Publishing

Dow Jones Electronic Publishing hosts several websites. In addition to online editions of its publications, the company operates the career advancement-oriented CareerJournal.com and CollegeJournal.com; OpinionJournal.com, with featured content from the Wall Street Journal's politically conservative editorial pages; business portals StartupJournal.com and RealEstateJournal.com; and Factiva, a news and business information service, which it jointly owned with Reuters until agreeing in October 2006 to buy out the British company's 50% stake.

In January 2005, Dow Jones purchased MarketWatch in a transaction valued at $528 million. MarketWatch is a popular financial website among retail investors, and Dow Jones purportedly coveted its successful business-to-consumer advertising base to augment its reliance on business-to-business advertising and subscription-based business models.