The Wall Street Journal is scaling back its print operations in Europe and Asia, two people familiar with the plans said on Friday, part of efforts by the news organization to cut costs and focus on its digital offerings.

The latest move would involve greatly reducing publication of its print newspaper in Europe, according to one of the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. That includes eliminating free copies and reducing hotel distribution deals that are not profitable. The Journal will continue to publish an Asian edition in Tokyo, but is exploring other ways to reduce print publishing elsewhere in Asia. The publisher is working out the decisions, and it was not immediately clear when they would take effect.

The news was first reported by The Financial Times.

A spokeswoman for Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal, declined to comment specifically on The Journal’s plans, but said in a statement that it was “constantly examining the balance between print and digital at a time when we’re seeing sharp growth in customer demand for digital.”

She added that The Journal’s digital subscriptions had doubled in Asia in the last year, and grown by 48 percent in Europe in that time. She did not provide further details.