WSJ.com’s Subscribers Reach 1 Million Mark; How Much Longer?
By Rafat Ali - Sun 04 Nov 2007 10:37 AM PST
The Wall Street Journal, part of Dow Jones, (NYSE: NWS) announced today on Sunday that WSJ.com has reached the 1 million paid subscribers mark. WSJ.com subscriptions grew 30 percent during this two year period, it also said.
Print continues to dog WSJ, though: According to the recent ABC FAS-FAX numbers, also released today, total paid Wall Street Journal circulation (print & online) is 2,012,000, showing a decline of 1.5 percent compared to the same period a year ago (though not as much as general newspapers). More in DJ’s release here.
Of course, the big question, raised at our FOBM conference earlier in the week as well, is how long will the pay wall continue. Given the anticipation that Rupert Murdoch will open access once the News Corp. acquisition of DJ is complete, it could be viewed a bit like the wicked witch putting up an umbrella to keep from melting.
Gordon Crovitz, the publisher of WSJ, had this to say at his Q&A: “The Wall St. Journal online is already the best business website, measured by quality of readers and journalism… the issue is, ‘can we have the biggest’?” Right now, the whole network is comparable in size to the big financial portals. Path is to make more content freely available, as a way of expanding readership. Still, there’s no set date for a completely free WSJ.com.
Posted in: Companies, WSJ-DJ, Media, Newspapers, Conferences, FOBM






