Wall Street Journal To Do Micro-payments
Posted by: siliconalleyinsider in Silicon Alley Insider
The premium plan, as the FT calls it, will focus on energy, commodities, wealth management and other specialty areas. The Wall Street Journal already has the most successful premium news site on the web, so it undoubtedly feels emboldened to try and charge for even more content.
The Journal is developing its payment system on its own. It will charge a certain price per article, though there’s no word on what the cost per article will be. Robert Thomson, the managing editor of the Journal, says it will be “rightfully high.” So take from that what you will.
Even if this works for the Journal, this will not be a panacea for the newspaper industry. The Journal is the most successful premium paper online because it sells actionable financial news that isn’t readily available elsewhere.
This fits in place with what Rupert Murdoch has been crowing about lately. He’s said the New York Times should have a paywall. He also said that you won’t find News Corp. (NWS) content on the Kindle. Clearly Rupe wants to protect and charge for his content.
This is a change of pace from when he first purchased Dow Jones. At that time, he spoke of setting the paper free on the web. Since then, he’s gotten a better look at the numbers, and watched advertising disappear.
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See Also:
- Rupert Murdoch Wants News Corp To Build A Kindle Rival (NWS)
- Murdoch Agrees: The New York Times Needs A Paywall
- How The New York Times Could Make Micropayments Work (NYT)