Dow Jones Freezes Salaries and Imposes Other Cuts : * Publishing: The company that owns the Wall Street Journal will also eliminate temporary jobs and cut its news space.

Dow Jones & Co., publisher of the Wall Street Journal, is freezing budgets for capital spending and salaries and imposing other news and business cutbacks to cope with weak financial results and the sluggish economy.

The cuts, announced in an internal memo to managers Thursday, followed weeks of rumors about a possible retrenchment and triggered concern over possible future layoffs at the media and financial-industry giant.

The memo, a copy of which was obtained Friday, also said Dow Jones will reduce management bonuses next year, eliminate all temporary help, try to eliminate all editorial staff relocations and reduce space devoted to news in the Journal.

Dow Jones earlier in the week announced a 17.5% drop in third-quarter profit, reflecting a steady downturn attributed principally to the company’s acquisition of the financial information service Telerate Inc.

The internal memo from Dow Jones Chairman Warren H. Phillips and Publisher and President Peter R. Kann freezes all capital expenditures immediately and holds all 1991 department budgets--including total salary costs--at 1990 levels. Accounting for inflation, the budget cut would amount to more than 5% for 1991.

Dow Jones will sell its corporate jet and reduce its aviation staff, and sell excess land purchased for Journal printing plant expansion and printing presses in storage, the memo said.

The memo said Dow Jones would reduce Journal special report inserts and table plans for a Journal magazine.

Among its other problems, Dow Jones has been hurt by the recession plaguing Wall Street since the 1987 stock market crash.

Operating income at Dow Jones’ business publications, which include the Journal and Barron’s weekly, dropped 80% in the second quarter. Advertising linage at the Journal dropped 16% in the period.