Dow Jones & Company Announces Voluntary Separation Incentive Program

Business Wire, Oct 2, 1998

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 2, 1998--Dow Jones & Company announced today a voluntary separation incentive program for certain long-time employees.

Under the program, Dow Jones will be offering all eligible employees one year's salary and retiree health benefits if they choose to leave the Company as of December 31, 1998.

Those eligible are all employees on the U. S. payroll and employees in Canada who will be 55 years of age or older as of December 31, 1998 and who will have been employed at Dow Jones for at least 10 years. Certain senior managers and craft employees will not be eligible for the program, nor will employees of the Company's Ottaway Newspapers subsidiary.

The program will be available to a total of approximately 340 employees, with a current payroll of $24.2 million, including both non-union employees as well as those represented by the Company's principal union, the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees, CWA Local 1096 (IAPE).

Dow Jones will record a charge against earnings for the cost of the program during the fourth quarter of this year. It will not be possible to determine the amount of the charge until eligible employees have made final decisions about the offer. That process is expected to be completed by early December. Cost savings from the program are expected beginning in 1999. The amount of these savings will also not be determined until the end of this year.

Dow Jones chairman and chief executive officer Peter R. Kann said, "The voluntary program we are announcing today will enable Dow Jones to reduce future costs, and thus better position the Company in the years ahead, while maintaining the Company's ability to continue to deliver excellence in our products and services."

Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ) publishes The Wall Street Journal and its international and Interactive editions, Barron's and SmartMoney magazines and other periodicals, Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Indexes, Dow Jones Interactive, and the Ottaway group of community newspapers. Dow Jones is co-owner of the CNBC television operations in Asia and Europe, and also provides news content to CNBC in the U.S.