NEW YORK, April 8 /PRNewswire/ -- The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition launched today to consumers, combining the unparalleled news coverage and analysis of The Wall Street Journal with the global business and news sources from Dow Jones Factiva and the worldwide network of Dow Jones Newswires.  The service – available via http://wsj.com/pro – provides business and professional readers specialized news and information across industries and topics that matter most to them.  

With a powerful search capability and a team of dedicated editors, The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition helps users instantly analyze and quickly understand the issues, industries, companies, people and ideas beneath the headlines.  Anchored by the leading news and analysis from WSJ.com, it provides an unmatched view into key industries with immediate access to news from Dow Jones' 2,000 journalists, as well as the ability to search more than 17,000 global business and news sources – thousands of which are not available on the free Web.

"Never before have business leaders and professionals had access to one sophisticated, customized service that directly addresses their individual needs," said Robert Thomson, editor-in-chief, Dow Jones & Company, and managing editor, The Wall Street Journal. "The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition combines the full power of our unmatched global reporting with a unique database.  Users will be able to access this service without being tethered to a clunky terminal."

This premium service is available to consumers for $49 per month.  Existing WSJ.com subscribers can upgrade to The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition for a discounted rate.

Multiple features and tools of The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition allow users to personalize the service to suit their individual needs.  Wall Street Journal editors will monitor and select top news and trends across key industries – including Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, Energy, Media & Marketing, Finance and Technology – as well as a range of additional topics and individual companies. Users can customize news alerts and company profiles for industries and topics that are most relevant to them.  

"The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition leverages two of our leading products to create an innovative tool to serve professionals across multiple industries – a service Dow Jones is uniquely positioned to provide," said Todd Larsen, president, Dow Jones & Company.  "The competitive advantage offered by being able to quickly and thoroughly access and analyze information from literally thousands of resources is an exciting prospect for our business and for our users."

More information about The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition is available at http://wsj.com/pro.  Additional media background information and page images are available at http://www.dowjones.com/pressroom/PressKits/wsjpro.asp.

ABOUT DOW JONES & COMPANY

Dow Jones & Company (www.dowjones.com) is a News Corporation company (Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV; www.newscorp.com) and a leading provider of global news and business information. Its principal products include The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Factiva, Barron's and MarketWatch. Through its Local Media Group, Dow Jones operates community-based newspapers and Web sites. Dow Jones also provides news content to television and radio stations.

SOURCE Dow Jones & Company