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You are here: Home / Media / WSJ iPad Pricing Model Is Bad News

WSJ iPad Pricing Model Is Bad News

March 29, 2010 by KATHY GILL, Technology Policy Analyst 2 Comments

AFP reports that the Wall Street Journal plans to charge $17.99 a month ($216/year) for an iPad subscription. This pricing model is hard to explain, given other WSJ subscription plans. And I worry that such extreme subscription plans could cloud the iPad debut and doom product adoption.

What are the various pricing schemes for the Wall Street Journal?

  • ~$20 a month for WSJ newspaper ($249/12 months via Amazon)
  • ~$18 a month for WSJ newspaper + online ($2.99/week, annual subscription)
  • $17.99 a month for the iPad (per the AFP article)
  • $14.99 a month for Kindle (per the AFP article)
  • ~$11 a month for WSJ newspaper + online ($2.69/week, introductory pricing, annual subscription)
  • ~$10 a month for WSJ newspaper (print, $2.29/week, introductory pricing, annual subscription)
  • ~$10 a month for WSJ newspaper (print, $2.29/week, annual subscription)
  • ~$8 a month on the iPhone, iPodTouch and BlackBerry ($2/week)
  • ~$8 a month for online-only ($1.99/week, introductory pricing, annual subscription)
  • ~$8 a month for online-only ($1.99/week, annual subscription)

An electronic version of any publication should not cost more than its printed version due to the almost-zero per unit distribution cost associated with the electronic version. Period.

The iPad is more like a small computer than a phone in its reading area. As such, it should not require device-dependent applications to access Internet content: this balkanization of the Internet is not a GoodThing. Computer software/hardware balkanization was the impetus for Sir Tim Berners-Lee to develop hypertext protocol and the web in the first place!

News isn’t like a song: we don’t read a story over and over again. The iTunes model isn’t going to salvage the news media’s business model, the one where they’ve reaped monopoly rents for decades.

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KATHY GILL, Technology Policy Analyst

Known for gnawing at complex questions like a terrier with a bone. Digital evangelist, writer, teacher. Transplanted Southerner; teach newbies to ride motorcycles! @kegill, wiredpen.com

wiredpen.com

Filed Under: Media, Science & Technology Tagged With: ipad, WSJ

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