Slashdot Mirror
WSJ's Online Subscriptions Outperform Print
ScentCone writes "The New York Post is reporting that the Wall Street Journal's parent company, Dow Jones, is doing much better with its online publication than with print. Online subscribers pay $84/year, whereas print subscribers are still paying $356... and the profit on the online business is 20 times that of the paper flavor." From the article: "'They're simply losing market share to other media. Print publishing is not a profitable business for Dow Jones anymore,' said Feinseth. Kann is hoping that the company's long-range growth also comes in online publishing, which has profit margins at least 20-fold higher than print. The Wall Street Journal Online is signing up thousands of new subscribers, up 5.2 percent for the quarter, to a total of 731,000."
How many people (like me) do both. Existing print subscribers can add the online service for $39 per year. I prefer to do most of my reading from the print version, but the interactivity of the online is also frequently useful....
The more publications go online successfully, the more demand there will be for ebooks and other portable reading devices, the quicker we'll finally get usable cheap ebooks.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
It would seem that way, wouldn't it? But the reporting and writing that paper does is superior to just about everyone else. I'm willing to pay the amount they're demanding. Am I stupid? Maybe. But I think the other alternatives are definately not worth their price.
And I'd lik to add that I pay the newstand price ($1) because the WSJ is a data whore. When I did subscribe to them, my junk mail increased about three fold.
The WSJ unlike most newspapers today still does a lot of its own research in detail. They have a large staff and they give them the time to turn out quality articles. Further the cost of distribution is high. Even in affluent neighborhoods a small percentage of the people want a speciality newspaper.
The WSJ costs a lot because its much more expensive to produce than your average newspaper. I'm glad they are making money they produce a quality product and they deserve it (with the exception of the editorial page which is junk).
That's 1.7 microns! A human hair is about 100 microns. High end litho presses run about 900 lpi.
'SBEMAIL!' is better than a goat!!