Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator Rises For Fourth Consecutive Month

Increase to 31.8 is a Positive Signal as Indicator Continues Slow but Steady
Rise

Continued Improvement Points to Return to Economic Growth by End of Year

NEW YORK, June 30 /PRNewswire/ -- The Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator
(ESI) rose for the fourth consecutive month to 31.8, an increase from 29 in
May and up more than nine points from its all-time low of 22.2 in November of
last year.

Dow Jones Newswires 'Money Talks' columnist Alen Mattich said that although
the indicator has yet to show the kind of sharp jump that has signaled the end
to previous recessions, its slow but steady crawl upwards is a positive sign.

"Although the indicator remains firmly in recessionary territory, a
continuation of this trend would point to a return to economic growth by the
fourth quarter of this year," Mattich said.

The Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator aims to predict the health of the
U.S. economy by analyzing the coverage of 15 major daily newspapers in the
U.S. It uses a numerical scale from 0 to 100 to express the balance of
sentiment in articles about the economy. The ESI represents one of the most
comprehensive and far-reaching examinations of media coverage as an economic
indicator. The ESI's back-testing to 1990 shows that the ESI clearly
highlighted the risk that the U.S. economy was sliding into recession in 2001
and 2008 and suggests the indicator can help predict economic turning points
as much as seven months in advance of other indicators.

Unlike some other indicators where 50 is a clear break-point between recession
and recovery, the ESI needs to be read with reference to longer trends. Based
on the ESI's performance since 1990, previous recoveries have been marked by
substantial month-to-month gains, with a jump of three points seeming to be a
sign of significant improvement. A drop below 50 marks the point at which
there is a clear risk of a slowdown.

The Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator is calculated using a proprietary
algorithm through Dow Jones Insight, a media tracking and analysis tool. More
information about the Economic Sentiment Indicator and its development is
available at http://solutions.dowjones.com/esi .

Dow Jones Insight uses innovative text mining and analytic technologies to
help organizations keep informed about relevant issues, news, conversations
and trends emerging in mainstream, Web and social media. Dow Jones Insight's
global content collection includes more than 25,000 news and information
sources as well as blogs, message boards, and posts from YouTube and Twitter.

About Dow Jones
Dow Jones & Company is a News Corporation company. (Nasdaq: NWS, NWSA; ASX:
NWS, NWSLV; www.newscorp.com) Dow Jones is a leading provider of global
business news and information services. Its Consumer Media Group publishes The
Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch and the Far Eastern Economic
Review. Its Enterprise Media Group includes; Dow Jones Business & Relationship
Intelligence, Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Factiva, Dow Jones Client
Solutions, Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones Financial Information Services. Its
Local Media Group operates community-based information franchises. Dow Jones
owns 50 percent of SmartMoney and 33 percent of STOXX Ltd. and provides news
content to radio stations in the U.S.

The Dow Jones Economic Sentiment Indicator is provided for analysis purposes
only and Dow Jones makes no representation that the indicator is a definitive
predictor of sentiment or the health of the U.S. economy. This report does
not in any way reflect an opinion of Dow Jones regarding the U.S. economy or
the suitability of any investments.

SOURCE Dow Jones & Company

Rob Thibault, Office, +1-609-627-2680, Mobile, +1-609-216-4780,
robert.thibault@dowjones.com