Categories: OLD Media Moves

WSJ is now selling subscriptions via Apple’s “Newsstand”

The Wall Street Journal is now selling digital subscriptions via Apple’s “Newsstand” service, reports Peter Kafka of All Things Digital.

Kafka writes, “That means Dow Jones’ business newspaper has joined thousands of other magazines and newspapers that market their stuff through Apple’s iTunes store — in exchange for giving Apple a cut of sales, and control over their relationship with their customers. (News Corp., which owns Dow Jones, also owns this Web site.)

“The move is worth noting because up until now the Journal was one of the highest-profile print publishers that wasn’t selling app access via Apple. Earlier this year, Time Inc., which had been the most prominent holdout, also signed on.

“The move means that Apple will retain 30 percent of all subscription revenue the Journal receives from ‘in-app’ sales, and it will retain control of customer billing information like credit card numbers and billing addresses.

“Like other publications, the Journal will be able to ask subscribers to submit their email addresses, a strategy that publishers says has been effective.”

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.