Who Owns Wall Street Journal?

Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser founded the Wall Street Journal on July 8, 1889, in New York City. The three men had previously operated Dow Jones and Company, a financial news service founded in 1882 that delivered handwritten financial bulletins to subscribers on Wall Street. The Journal was created as a more comprehensive daily newspaper covering business and financial news.

Charles Dow also developed the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1896, a stock market index that became one of the most widely cited financial benchmarks in the world. The Dow Jones Industrial Average remains a central part of the Dow Jones and Company brand today, though the Journal itself focuses on news rather than index management.

Clarence Barron, a Boston financial journalist, acquired Dow Jones and Company in 1902 for $130,000. Barron transformed the Journal into a nationally distributed publication and expanded its coverage beyond New York. Barron's descendants, the Bancroft family, maintained ownership of Dow Jones and Company for 105 years.

The Journal won its first Pulitzer Prize in 1947 for public service journalism. The newspaper expanded beyond financial news to cover politics, foreign affairs, and general business throughout the mid-20th century. The Journal's distinctive front-page format, featuring detailed news summaries in the left and right columns alongside a central feature story, became one of the most recognized newspaper layouts in American journalism.

The Journal launched its website, WSJ.com, in 1996 and introduced a paid subscription model for online content in 1997, making it one of the first major newspapers to charge for digital access. This early move to digital subscriptions proved prescient as the broader newspaper industry struggled with the transition to digital media.

In 2007, Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation made a hostile bid for Dow Jones and Company at $60 per share, a 67% premium to the then-current stock price. The Bancroft family, which had maintained editorial control through a dual-class share structure, initially resisted the bid but ultimately accepted after negotiations that included editorial independence provisions. The $5.6 billion acquisition closed in August 2007.

Under News Corp ownership, the Journal expanded its digital operations, launched a weekend edition, and grew its subscriber base significantly. The newspaper surpassed 3 million digital subscribers in 2020 and continued growing through 2025, reaching over 3.7 million total subscribers.