WSJ Online celebrates 10-year anniversary

The Wall Street Journal Online is 10 years old, and the Web site is celebrating by making the site free for the next 10 days, according to a press release. This is a similar move to what fellow site Barron’s Online did earlier this year to try to get more subscribers.

In a story on the Web site, the paper notes that WSJ Online was close to going under in the early years.

The story reads in part: “When the newsroom staff filed in early Sunday morning, April 28, 1996, they found that something had gone horribly wrong with the publishing system. While the technical staff struggled through the day and into the night to fix the problem, editors assembled what they could. At some dark point in the process, a brief article was written for the print Journal announcing the delay:

“‘… Journal editors said they made the decision to delay the launch, which had been planned for today (mon.), because of problems with the new electronic editing system used to produce the Interactive Edition. They said they believed the problems would be solved in time to introduce the new publication tomorrow. (tues.)'”

Read about it here.

The press release states, “The celebration kicks off this morning when The Wall Street Journal Online will go live from Times Square in New York with a mobile newsroom.

Tomorrow, May 2, the Online Journal will hold a San Francisco event in partnership with the San Francisco metro (“MUNI”). WSJ.com will provide free passes to the metro, so consumers can commute for free, courtesy of the Online Journal.

“‘We are excited to share this milestone anniversary celebration with our subscribers and advertisers,’ said Gail Griffin, general manager of The Wall Street Journal Online. ‘For 10 years WSJ.com has been the primary source for business news on the Web, offering the best in-depth, real time news and information as well as award winning analysis and content. This Open House enables visitors to experience our features and get a taste of the great value of the Online Journal.’

Read the rest of the release here.