The Biz Blog

So allegedly capricious tycoon Rupert Murdoch has taken a measured look at the details and decided with his lieutenants that making the Wall Street Journal's online site free was not such a hot idea after all.

 

To me this is modest evidence for my perspective on the unfolding Murdoch era at the Journal -- that he will proceed with care rather than tip his prized trophy property upside down. In tweaking the online model, he accepted the humbling status of being the fifth most-trafficked newspaper site, behind Newsday's, and stepped back from some pretty firm earlier comments that going free made sense because it could move reregular readership from a million to between 10 and 15 million.

 

Some details remain to be defined since Murdoch dropped the decision in off-handed fashion answering a question at the Davos World Economic Forum.  More of the site will become free to build traffic from search, but much will remain paid, and the subscription price is going up. 

 

That fits the Journal's dual status as a business publication that many subscribers or their companies expense, but one with considerable appeal to a general audience, too.

 

Something Murdoch and others at the Journal have not said and won't say is that the new strategy mirrors that of rival Financial Times -- a substantial basic news report for free and tiers of premium priced enhancements for deeper business data and analysis.