DJCO | Market Cap: $801.2M (07/13/26)
Industry:
Software Media & Entertainment

DESCRIPTION

Daily Journal is a small California-based company with two businesses: court case management software through its Journal Technologies subsidiary, and a traditional newspaper and publishing operation that is in secular decline. Journal Technologies sells software to courts, prosecutor and public defender offices, probation departments, and other justice agencies, enabling electronic case management, e-filing, online traffic citation payments, and coordination across justice system partners. Journal Technologies' products are deployed across roughly 37 U.S. states, as well as in Australia and Canada, and account for about 80% of total company revenue. Journal Technologies earns revenue through software licenses or subscriptions, annual maintenance and support fees, implementation consulting, hosting fees for cloud-based deployments, and transaction-based fees from public-facing services. Most customers are government agencies, so new contracts are won through competitive bidding, making new customer revenue lumpy. Once installed, however, the software tends to generate recurring maintenance and support fees. The traditional publishing business publishes 10 newspapers in California and Arizona, targeting legal and real estate professionals, with flagship titles being the Los Angeles Daily Journal and San Francisco Daily Journal. Revenue comes from subscriptions, legally mandated public notice advertising, and commercial advertising. Public notice advertising is the most durable revenue stream given its legal mandate, while commercial advertising continues to decline. Daily Journal also holds a notable investment portfolio, historically built under Charlie Munger, which the company uses alongside operating cash flow to fund operations.

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