Wall Street Journal Further Monetizes Digital Publication

Rupert Murdoch and News Corp made big news themselves this week by announcing a separation of its entertainment and publishing businesses. But another less splashy event occurred today too.

Those of you who read my blog know how much I LOVE the Wall Street Journal. For a little bit longer than half a year, I've enjoyed reading it on my Kindle Fire and my Droid 3 when I'm on the go. I find the Kindle Fire user experience to be quite good. And unlike my mobile app version, the Kindle Fire version downloads my morning paper over wifi in the wee hours of the night so the entire paper can be read offline by the time I wake up. That part is awesome!

Source: WSJ

Good ole Rupert Murdoch is more than happy to extract as much value as possible from this love affair. Everyone knows the WSJ is one of the most successful DIGITAL publications out there who never fell victim to a pure advertising-based revenue model and decided to run a paid subscription for its walled off garden of content FROM DAY ONE. That's one of the reasons why Murdoch bought Dow Jones a few years ago. As a business person, I can respect that.

As a subscriber, the WSJ continues to push my price sensitivity. Here's a great example of their "pushing" recently.

When I signed up for what they call the "Wall Street Journal Kindle and Digital Plus" last winter, it was a great package where you can read the WSJ on any digital device for one rate. At that time, it was $14.99/month, which was actually higher than my print subscription. But the convenience of multi-device consumption and the environmental benefit outweighed the higher cost. Then, on February 17, 2012, I received an email that my subscription was increasing to $18.29/month. For you kids at home, that's a 22% increase!

TODAY, I received an email saying that effective August 29, 2012, my rate is going up to $21.62/month. That's another 18% increase! This is all within the past 6-7 months. I don't know what other industry has that kind of a growth rate, especially in a down economy!!!

Am I going to cancel? NO. The WSJ is my cocaine. I love it. I need it. It's my friend. I gotta have it. So, Murdoch, you got me...again.

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