The Wall Street Journal Web site is considering a micropayment system in which business news readers pay for the articles they want, write Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson and Kenneth Li of the Financial Times.
They write, “Mr Thomson said the Journal was developing its own system to charge small sums to occasional users who might not pay more than $100 a year for a WSJ.com subscription.
“Pricing for individual articles and for premium subscriptions had yet to be decided, he said, but would be ‘rightfully high.’
“The Journal has raised average print subscription prices 21 per cent since News Corp’s 2007 takeover, but saw advertising fall a third in the first quarter.
“Its premium plan will focus on readers interested in energy, commodities, wealth management and other niches.
“Premium subscribers will have web access to Dow Jones newswire stories, representing a ‘consumerisation’ of the group’s products for companies.”
Read more here.
