One of the most recognizable names in the history of stock exchanges is Dow Jones, but the name, and the company, is not a brokerage firm or a stock market. Dow Jones & Company was founded in 1882 by newspaper reporters Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser and began its life as a financial news service.

The Dow Jones group is best known for it ownership of the Wall Street Journal, the preeminent financial newspaper in the United States. It also is synonymous with the health of the nation's stock markets through it Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), which charts the stocks of 30 selected companies representing all sectors of the United States economy, except transportation and utilities.

Media Empire

The Dow Jones group started life in 1889 when Jones converted the small Customers' Afternoon Letter into The Wall Street Journal (WSJ). He also began delivering the Dow Jones News Service by telegraph. The publication featured the Jones "Average," the first of several indexes of stock and bond prices listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Today the "Journal," as it also is called, has a paid circulation of approximately 1.8 million readers.

The company was bought by journalist Clarence Barron in 1902.At the time the WSJ's circulation approached 7,000 but climbed to 50,000 by the end of the 1920s. Its media holdings expanded in 1921 with the launching of Barron's National Business & Financial Weekly. The company holdings also include online services, several business journals, and a number of community newspapers under the Ottaway Newspapers chain. It also has cooperative relationships with other major financial publications.

Market Watcher

Aside from its media holdings, Dow Jones is best known for it market averages. The first of these market averages included 11 stocks, most in the railroad industry because they were considered some of the most stable companies in the country. It expanded to include 20 stocks, all in the railroad industry, in 1986, the same year Dow Jones debuted it more famous industrial stock average. The railroad average was changed to the transportation average in 1970. The company also publishes a utilities stock average.

Over the years, the DJIA has added and dropped stocks as their status and importance in the economy has changed. The stocks are traded on the NYSE and are considered to be the most stable and representative of their various industries. Part of the index's continued appeal is that the stocks listed are so carefully chosen and any changes in the list's composition is closely watched by Wall Street insiders.