Categories: OLD Media Moves

Murdoch: Most of WSJ.com will remain behind pay wall

News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch said Thursday that most of The Wall Street Journal‘s online content will remain available only to subscribers, according to a blog item from the World Economic Forum by Journal staff writer Emily Steel.

Steel wrote, “Speculation that News Corp. would make WSJ.com a completely free site had been rife in recent months, since Mr. Murdoch had signaled he was contemplating lifting the subscription wall. Mr. Murdoch had indicated that lifting the pay wall could broaden the Journalâ€™s online audience and boost its Web advertising revenue, offsetting any loss in subscription revenues.

“Mr. Murdoch made his comments at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in answer to a question.

“‘We are going to greatly expand and improve the free part of the Wall Street Journal online, but there will still be a strong offering’ for subscribers, Mr. Murdoch said. ‘The really special things will still be a subscription service, and, sorry to tell you, probably more expensive.'”

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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.