Peter R. Kann, the company’s president and...

Peter R. Kann, the company’s president and chief operating officer, will succeed Phillips as chief executive. Kann, 47, also is publisher of the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones’ flagship publication.

Spokesman Roger May said Phillips’ decision to leave was based on the customary retirement age of 65 and was not connected with a sharp drop in third-quarter earnings reported last week.

Dow Jones has no mandatory retirement age except for its directors, which is age 70, May said.

The timing of Phillips’ announcement came as a surprise to some Dow Jones employees, since it followed the bad earnings report and the disclosure of a severe cost-cutting plan.

However, May said Phillips’ plans were known to the company’s outside directors for over a year.

Phillips will remain a member of Dow Jones’ board. No date has been set for the board to elect a successor to Phillips as chairman, said Dana Jennings, another company spokesman.

“These actions will provide an orderly transition of executive responsibility,” Phillips said in a statement. “After an immensely satisfying 43-year career at Dow Jones and more than 15 years as CEO, it is time for me to step down and allow a new CEO and his colleagues to provide fresh energy and continuity of leadership in the years ahead.”

In addition to the Journal, Dow Jones publishes the weekly financial newspaper Barron’s, produces a weekly financial television show and provides financial information electronically.

Dow Jones announced in an internal memo last Thursday that it was freezing budgets for capital spending and salaries and imposing other news and business spending cuts to cope with weak financial results and the sluggish economy. The memo did not rule out layoffs.

The memo followed an announced 17.5% slide in third-quarter profits, attributed principally to the company’s acquisition of the financial information service Telerate Inc. Dow Jones also has been hurt by the recession plaguing Wall Street since the 1987 stock market crash.

Operating income at Dow Jones’ business publications dropped 80% in the third quarter. Advertising lineage at the Journal dropped 16% in the period.