Murdoch: WSJ.com expected to be free
Cory Bergman November 13th, 2007
Not surprised, are you? Rupert Murdoch says plans are underway to make WSJ.com a free site. “We are studying it and we expect to make that free, and instead of having one million (subscribers), having at least 10 million-15 million in every corner of the earth,” Murdoch said. The idea is that the increased traffic will yield more incremental ad dollars than the $50 million the site is taking in now in user fees. As far as a timeline, Murdoch’s News Corp. is holding a special shareholders meeting on Dec. 13th.
Alright Lost Remote readers, where do you come down on this?
4 Comments Add your own
1. Rocker | November 13th, 2007 at 10:28 am
If they can get 15 million monthly users as a mostly* free site, that should be good for at least $100m in revenue.
*Even free, there are probably some upsell possibilities.
2. TJ | November 13th, 2007 at 11:55 am
There is no doubt that they will make a considerable amount off ads. They provide alot of content that could be available to even more outlets. MAKE IT FREE!
3. mike jones | November 13th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
It’s going to take a long time to make up that revenue that he’s throwing away. Diversification of revenue is never a bad thing, particularly when the ad market wanes.
He should put most things free, but create a premium product.
4. News Consumer | November 13th, 2007 at 5:51 pm
Thre’s more to the value of the content than merely the subscription or ad dollars that content might generate. Th WSJ is one of the few media companies that has a public image as a premiere news source. By giving away that content they may ultimately be devaluing it. It’s a tricky trade-off - give it away so more people will read it and thereby driving up ad revenues, or keep it subscription and maintain the image as a high-value source.
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