Categories: OLD Media Moves

Not to be a kiss-up to the new boss, but…

Kara Swisher, a technology reporter for The Wall Street Journal, writes on the All Things D web site run by the paper’s tech team that she believes that the paper’s web site should be free.

Coincidentally, that’s the way that new owner, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, appears to be leaning as well.

Swisher wrote, “Interestingly, in an interview with paidContent.org last week, WSJ publisher Gordon Crovitz said: ‘So far, our analysis says the way to maximize revenues and earnings is to have a mixed model.’

“While I hate to differ with Crovitz, who helped us immeasurably in getting this site up and running as a free one, I think an open and ad-supported model is the only way to go now, especially under a larger and more powerful (and, most importantly, global) company like News Corp. that can really vaunt the site to higher prominence and higher traffic.

“And given the Journalâ€™s online site garners estimated revenues of about $65 million from its paid efforts, which is admirable, it is chump change for News Corp. to try turbocharging the site as a free one, an experiment that will surely pay back the short-term cost.”

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.