"I think it's highly unlikely," Dow Jones President Todd Larsen countered, while the two were on stage today at Business Insider's Ignition conference in New York.
The two panelists, who were interviewed by Business Insider Editor-in-Chief Henry Blodget, discussed how they're adapting and optimizing in an ever-changing news media landscape.
The Wall Street Journal, Larsen explained, is "focused on transforming into a digital-driven business, but is still investing in print." The most important investment the Journal is making is not in the platform, but in the content. "Our focus is to get people to buy the Journal, and not focus on buying the print or the iPad edition, etcetera. We want to make it easy for consumers to pay once and get it all over the place, on any device they want."
Hippeau expressed confidence about the The Huffington Post's growth and its inherent appeal to younger generations. He's focused on boosting its advertising revenues, which have remained low despite the fact that The Huffington Post's audience is now larger than The New York Times, and on mobile. In particular, he's keen to help brands understand how to optimize their advertising to make it relevant to audiences by tying it to current events and embracing The Huffington Post's blog model, he said in a follow-up interview with Mashable.