I love the Wall Street Journal. I read it everyday and have for years. I recently decided I wanted to get the online version so I could access this anywhere in the world when I travel. I was a bit surprised when I was told I would have to pay for the online content which I did not understand. I think if you are a subscriber you should get access to the content online for free. I’ve already bought the paper. I love my WSJ so I bought it but now find out that if I want access to this content on my iPhone with the new WSJ application that they want to charge me again? Asking me to pay for the same content three different times is crazy. This might add to the bottom line in the short run but they run the risk of losing me as a loyal customer and many others. USAToday, NYTimes, and hosts of other news services offer much their content online for free and they have other revenue generating models built in to support this. Rupert Murdoch, the founder, chairman and managing director of News Corporation (News Corp) which owns the Wall Street Journal, recently made news (no pun intented :) when he said he is considering not allowing Google to access their content online. This is what one expert is saying about this. This goes 100% against the current in the industry where content is moving towards free. It is a risky move but I think he may be on to something. The WSJ is a different news source than the rest and he may be able to get away with this. His target demographic is different than many other papers. However, asking his loyal users to pay three times for the same content is too much. I willingly pay to get the Wall Street Journal because I love the quality of their reporting and content but not am not willing to pay three times to get the same content. I think they need to review this policy. At any rate, if Rupert does ban Google from using their content it will be interesting to see how this affects the industry and the WSJ.
