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August 3, 2007
WSJ subscriber reaction to the Murdoch takeover
So, all of 170 out of the Wall Street Journal's 1.7 million subscribers terminated their subscription as a result of Rupert Murdoch's successful bid to acquire the WSJ?
What the heck. Felix Salmon makes a good case that Murdoch should turn the WSJ into a free service:
The potential readership of the WSJ . . . is enormous. Right now, there is no one-stop-shop on the World Wide Web for comprehensive, global businesss and finance news and analysis. A free WSJ.com would overnight become the global authority on such matters. WSJ.com is never going to make much money selling subscriptions in India or Brazil or Russia or even Mexico – but if it became a regular read among the business classes in those countries, local ad reps could make a fortune for News Corp. (Technology nowadays makes it very easy to target ads to readers in specific countries.)The reason I'm hopeful about Murdoch buying the WSJ is that Murdoch has a truly global outlook, while the WSJ has always seemed to be a bit on the parochial side. And no one with a global outlook thinks that trying to sell subscriptions to WSJ.com makes any sense. Free is clearly the way to go.
Posted by Tom at August 3, 2007 12:00 AM
Comments
That's an interesting point about Murdoch's global outlook.
I'm hopeful that over time, the WSJ's international coverage in general improves. The Financial Times, for example, is a wonderful source for international news (not just international business news). The WSJ is not even close, but I think with Murdoch at the helm, maybe it could be.
Posted by: Kevin Whited ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://blog.kir.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 3, 2007 8:38 AM
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