If you are an investor, then the Wall Street Journal is the newspaper to have. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most expensive newspapers to have. Don’t despair. As it turns out, the Wall Street Journal actually makes its content freely available on the web.
Last time I checked, a one-year subscription to the print edition cost $155.48. The online edition cost only $103.48. That’s still a lot of money for most of us. There’s no need to bite the bullet and shell out money you don’t have.
How to Access Wall Street Journal Online Edition for Free
The Wall Street Journal already offers a limited preview of their online edition. However, when you access the site, you will quickly notice that you will have to become a subscriber in order to enjoy full access to all of their content.
Recently, though, the Wall Street Journal made their content available through Google News. Just search for Wall Street Journal articles on Google News and proceed from there to the Wall Street Journal site. Google News acts as a gateway giving you full access.
Of course, there’s a method to it. Instead of a searching for the headline of a Wall Street Journal, you should search for Wall Street Journal articles in general. To do so, click on “Advanced News Search”. Enter “Wall Street Journal” in the “News Source” text box. Then simply sort your results by date. Finally, click on “Google Search”. Voila.
Why the Wall Street Journal Is Giving Away Free Access
You may be wondering why exactly the Wall Street Journal is giving away free access and why are they doing so this way. If you’re thinking they must somehow be making money on this, you’re right. They’re not doing this because they’re in love with Google News readers.
The Wall Street Journal is employing a conventional marketing technique called “price discrimination” (which is also commonly used by airlines). Different types of customers are asked to pay different prices. Those who can afford a subscription and are willing to pay for the service are asked to pay up. Those who can’t afford a subscription or are unwilling to pay for the service are given access for free. One group is paying a price of $100 per year while the other group is paying a price of $0 per year.
Of course, the Wall Street Journal took steps to conceal that free access from paying customers and make it less attractive by using Google News as a gateway. Otherwise, their paying customers would have good news to be upset and cancel their subscriptions.
The story doesn’t end there however. You might be wondering how charging a price of $0 could bring in revenues. The reason is simple. The Wall Street Journal also makes money through advertising. The more visitors there are to the site, the more advertising revenues that brings in. Thus, even the visitors who are paying $0 themselves are still contributing to the newspapers’ bottom line because they help the paper raise its advertising rates. It’s just that they are contributing less than the paying subscribers do. As far as the Wall Street Journal is concerned, though, little revenue is better than no revenue. In other words, if they did not get the additional visitors, their total revenues would be less. No business wants that.
Photo Credit: Kevin Dooley
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