Barrons.com Breaks 100,000 In Paid Online Subscriptions
By Staci D. Kramer - Wed 15 Aug 2007 09:00 AM PST
A reminder that life goes on at Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ) while the buyout by News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) wends its way to a close ... DJ announced today that, as expected, Barron’s Online broke through the 100,000 barrier during July, giving it a paid base of about 102,000, about one tenth of its sibling WSJ.com in the 18 months since the two separated. More important from the competitive perspective, DJ gets to brag that Barron’s is ahead of FT.com with its 97,000 or so paid subs. The online edition runs $39 annually for print subs and $79 for online only.
Like WSJ.com, Barrons.com, which relaunched today with a fresh look, offers a blend of subscription-only and free features. According to internal stats from Omniture, it drew more than 1.1 million unique users in July.
-- Electronic editions: As is the case with many publications, Barron’s is also available in an electronic edition that is included in the ABC audit numbers. The Jan.-July report of 312,562 circulation included 952 digital edition.
Where Barron’s fits in with the talk about possibly dropping the paywall on WSJ.com is just another of the unknowns swirling around the News Corp. takeover. News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch has mention often his belief that WSJ.com may be worth more ultimately as a free site. But that doesn’t necessarily mean everything would go free.
Posted in: Companies, FT.com, News Corp., WSJ-DJ, Media, Newspapers
