Wall Street Journal to broaden paid-for web access

Posted: Wednesday, 9 September 2009 - 4:04pm Bookmark and Share

The micropayments will be designed for users who might not be prepared to pay a full annual subscription of at least $103 (£67) and though Thomson told the FT prices had not yet been decided, he said they would be "rightfully high".Premium subscriptions would focus on niche audiences for energy, comodities and wealth management among other subjects but would also include information form Dow Jones newswires, illustrating the "consumerisation" of some of Dow Jones' traditional business products.Thomson also said the WSJ would be pushing to increase its audiences in key US cities and has begun marketing campaigns in San Francisco and Detroit with an emphasis on sports and local political coverage.The WSJ details follow Rupert Murdoch's comments last week about the Kindle (he doesn't want to hand over IP to them, and would rather develop a News Corp ereader) and confirmation that the firm now has a crack paid-web-content squad charged with wringing more money from online content and reducing reliance on advertising.More ...