Categories: OLD Media Moves

WSJ plugs pay gap hole at Instapaper

The Wall Street Journal is no longer letting readers view its stories for free on Instapaper, writes Lucia Moses of Digiday.

Moses writes, “The bookmarking tool lets you save stripped-down versions of articles in your browser or phone to read them later. It’s also been known to a few as a way to save Journal articles in their entirety. The Journal ironically, published an article last year on save-for-later apps saying that if you hit “save” while on the full article, you can save the entire text. Now, when you save Journal articles to Instapaper, though, you only get an excerpt, not the full article.

“A Journal rep confirmed it’s been experimenting with a number of different trials to get people to subscribe but wouldn’t elaborate.

“As the biggest paywalled publisher, the Journal has been aggressive in trying to protect and grow its subscription revenue, which is core to its business model.”

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.