How the WSJ is pushing for more subscribers

Sara Guaglione of Digiday writes about The Wall Street Journal’s latest push for more subscribers.

Guaglione writes, “As part of its brand push, the WSJ is planning to hold an ‘open house’ on May 20 in which it will drop the paywall on its site to let all content be accessible for free for the day, said Suzi Watford, evp, consumer at the WSJ’s parent company Dow Jones.

“The tactic serves as an ‘extremely good way to market and sample content, which is the best way to grow that [brand] consideration,’ and also ‘should help to turn ‘colder’ audiences into future subscribers,’ she said. However, readers will need to register with their email, which allows the WSJ to continue to market subscriptions to them after the open house. The WSJ last dropped its paywall on Election Day in 2020.

“‘We see an opportunity to attract new members, drive further consideration for the brand and demonstrate how useful the Journal can be,’ said Watford.”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.