Wall Street Journal, New York Times Becoming Totally Free?

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You may have noticed that the Wall Street Journal website is free right now not free anymore. Rupert Murdoch wants to switch from a subscription-based site to an advertising-based model, and I am totally for it! It was always a pain to have articles publicly available for a limited only, or never at all. So visit WSJ.com today, drive up their visitor count during this little experiment, and help make it free forever 🙂

In related news, the New York Times is also going completely free, getting rid of the paid portion of its site called TimesSelect. You could still get it free with an .edu address so I was subscribed to it, but it’s nice that know that now I can still get it once my school e-mail dies off. In addition, the newspaper is also giving free access to all its old articles from 1987 to present. Nice!

Some people are skeptical that the shift away from paid content is a good idea, but I think it was inevitable due to competition. I mean, I wouldn’t have visited or linked to either the LA Times or Chicago Tribune just now if they weren’t free.

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Comments

  1. That’s great news but is it really that different from CNN or any other news site like newsvine?

  2. Looks like the WSJ experiment is over. The Subscription article are back 🙁

  3. WSJ is not free.

  4. InvestEveryMonth.com says

    I was up late last night reading through NYT articles that used to be behind the Times Select wall. I’m sure I was in their target market of people they thought would pay to read their articles, but I just got mad that I was missing some articles and moved on to read free articles from other sites.

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  6. I think it’s a great idea! I love the WSJ, but a print sub is pricey for my budget right now, and I seldom go to the website due to having to pay. Yay for the WSJ being free online!

  7. How much value do you place on WSJ?

    While it would be nice to get it free, I read my dad’s copy of the WSJ from time to time to check on the market and world’s new. Paying for a subscription when I rarely have the time to check on WSJ every day doesn’t justify my budget. I was wondering how much of an impact WSJ has on your financial life?

  8. Means No Cents says

    As for value of newspapers and finances, I would rate the top four as follows:

    1. The Financial Times (of London). This is widely considered the most reputable newspaper in the world. It masterfully covers American politics and financial realm but with an international perspective.

    2. Wall Street Journal
    3. New York Times
    4. Washington Post

  9. This morning I heard on the radio from a guy from WSJ that WSJ may not be totally free as NYT. But if it shows that the revenue generated from advertisements is bigger than the subscription fee, then they may change mind.

  10. Hooray! I can now read my favorite op/ed columnists at the NYT for free!

  11. I don’t think I was clear enough in my original post, let me offer some emphasis: The WSJ is offering itself as free right now as an experiment, as Murdoch wants to make it free.

    I don’t read the WSJ every day, but I do think they have quality articles from time to time that I want to read, but can’t for free and I am not willing to pay.

  12. Kamarulzaman Baharom says

    There is free daily newspaper in Malaysia called “The Sun”. Although the news cover is no so wide, the paper has already gained respect among reader because of the transparency and critical view to the government and of course its full of advertisement.

  13. Hmmmm, I don’t get it. Just browsed around on WSJ, but whatever I click, I only get a ‘free preview’ – an incomplete article. I don’t see anything about an experiment, and the article you link to only says that the NYT is opening up parts of its site – Murdoch is just ‘thinking about it’.

  14. I always liked reading the articles in the WSJ. Their articles have an almost apathetic attitude about them.

  15. You can get free access to WSJ.com and like 300 other subscription sites for free with a site called congoo.com.

  16. It’s completely inevitable. It gives nearly the whole market over to money.cnn.com or forbes. I agree WSJ has better content, but the market has already shown, price is most important to most. Look at wal-mart. I enjoy free WSJ because the company I work for subscribes, but It’ll be even nicer online!

  17. price is more* important to most. (sorry, it sounded strange they way I worded it above.)

  18. congoo requires the installation of a browser toolbar, which may either be banned at work or is otherwise annoying or undesirable.

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