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Wall Street Journal Plans to Charge iPhone, BlackBerry Readers

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9:03 PM, Sep. 15th ET, 2009
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Rupert Murdoch
News Corp CEO
Rupert Murdoch

News Corp Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch plans for his company to begin charging iPhone and BlackBerry users to read content from The Wall Street Journal. Mr. Murdoch made the comments at a Goldman Sachs conference in New York, according to a Reuters report.

Until now, mobile users have been able to access the paper for free from their mobile devices, but Mr. Murdoch seeks to monetize this readership directly by charging a fee to access it. News Corp bought the Journal as part of its acquisition of Dow Jones in July of 2007.

Under the plan, non-subscribers would need to pay $2 per week to access the site, while subscribers to either print or online editions of the newspaper would have to pay $1 per week to access it. Subscribers to both the print and online editions would get mobile access for free.

PaidContent.org also reported that Mr. Murdoch did not look favorably on Amazon.com's Kindle, mainly due to the revenue sharing agreement between the two companies for Wall Street Journal and News Corp's other newspaper subscriptions.

Instead he prefers the deal with Sony on its upcoming 3G wireless eReader. "We'll be doing everything we can to drive that one, the mobile one," he said at the conference. That device is expected to ship in time for this year's holiday shopping season.

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14 Observer Comments

What an ass! The biggest consolation is that since he and his band of extremists took over the Journal, there’s nothing of merit in it any more except the stock quotes. And you can get those lots of places for free.

Fine. ...

I had downloaded WSJ for the iPhone quite a while back. ... It was one of the Apps on my iPhone that I used at least five times a week. ...

Deleted! Poof! Gone! History!

Well let’s see, a bizzillion news sources minus one is still a bizzillion news sources. So long and don’t let the door slam you in the a@* on the way out.

   Actions Lee Dronick said on September 15th, 2009 at 10:22 PM (Edited: 10/18/2011 6:20 PM):

The news outlets have to make money somehow. However, unless they have something to offer that is much better than the free sites then this subscription plan may fail.

   Actions mactoid said on September 16th, 2009 at 10:45 AM (Edited: 10/25/2011 8:44 PM):

His business model doesn’t make sense. 

“...while subscribers to either print or online editions of the newspaper would have to pay $1 per week to access it.”

So, I pay my fee to have access to the online edition, but he’s now going to tell me that somehow I have to pay more to access WSJ via Safari on my iPhone than using Safari on my MacBook Pro (which can be very mobile, BTW).

This guy seriously needs to get a clue!!!

   Actions Lee Dronick said on September 16th, 2009 at 10:54 AM (Edited: 10/18/2011 6:20 PM):

This guy seriously needs to get a clue!!!

Well has a few clues or he wouldn’t be so filthy rich, but he is clueless enough to understand that gouging subscribers may backfire.

Anyway, I don’t think that this guy Murdock was even born in the USA. Has anyone seen his birth certificate or a certificate of live birth? /joke

   Actions mactoid said on September 16th, 2009 at 12:17 PM (Edited: 10/25/2011 8:44 PM):

Well has a few clues or he wouldn’t be so filthy rich,

Wealth is not predictive of intelligence or skill…it’s mostly related to luck.  Check out Nicholas Taleb’s “Fooled by Randomness”.

   Actions John Martellaro said on September 16th, 2009 at 4:26 PM (Edited: 07/29/2011 1:39 PM):

It’s a dangerous game. Smart people with modern business models can offer a lot for free that Mr. Murdoch wants to charge for. That’s why it’s called
‘old media’.  Unworkable business models by old guys.

-JM

   Actions furbies said on September 16th, 2009 at 7:14 PM (Edited: 11/09/2010 5:45 AM):

Anyway, I don’t think that this guy Murdock was even born in the USA. Has anyone seen his birth certificate or a certificate of live birth?

He was an Australian, like me, except that he’s filthy rich!.
He turned American so he could buy up all your newspapers & TV stations.

And if you think he’s scary, you should have seen (The Late) Kerry Packer.

Yes, he is real crazy: he actually wants to be able to pay all the people with journalism degrees writing those stories and make a profit. The Journal, like the New York Times, actually researches stuff before they write it.

I do not know if the subscription model is the answer, however, by me several newspapers have closed shop. It isn’t possible to provide high quality journalism and not pay for it.

   Actions Lee Dronick said on September 17th, 2009 at 6:48 AM (Edited: 10/18/2011 6:20 PM):

The Journal, like the New York Times, actually researches stuff before they write it.

Doesn’t he also own Fox News? smile

   Actions Lee Dronick said on September 17th, 2009 at 7:26 AM (Edited: 10/18/2011 6:20 PM):

Seriously he may be right about the subscriptions. The people who value the content found in the Wall Street Journal will be willing to pay for it. Others who are more interested in the antics of Kanye West than financial and business news will have no problem getting free stories.

Furthermore as Terrin pointed out businesses need to make a profit. Is Murdoch’s plan of $104 per year to access the site too much? The market will decide that and then we can read about it in the business news.

Yes, he is real crazy: he actually wants to be able to pay all the people with journalism degrees writing those stories and make a profit. The Journal, like the New York Times, actually researches stuff before they write it.

If the New York Time and the Wall Street Journal are so great at things like “investigative journalism” than why is it that neither paper broke the ACORN story instead of a pair of college students?

Old Media works for people out of sync with the changes of time. ... Stuck in the rut. And for the nostalgia of days gone. ...

If you look at New York, on any given Sunday, there will be all the modes of transportation ever invented, walking, horses, blimp, aircraft, carriages (Horsed and otherwise), Bikes, unicycles, pogo sticks, skates. ...

Of those transport items, old media is a horseless carriage market in a modern world. ... And that markets will make niche money.

It is unimportant that he wants to make enough money to pay his folk enough to make a living, and a profit for himself, what matters is that only a very small segment of the market wants to pay him anything.

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