One of my favorite online publications to read, The Wall Street Journal, recently sent me a notice that it was time to renew. Fair enough, it’s been a year, and for the quality of the publication I don’t mind spending money to read it. So I read through the notice a little closer and realized that the renewal cost was $197! That’s right, almost $200 for the privilege of reading the Journal!
I felt insulted. First off, the website is NOT free of ads. You still run into them everywhere on the site, and frankly if I’m going to pay anything for a site, I want it to be ad-free. Secondly, with the depth of information on free websites, how can they possibly charge that much? Finally, when I queried their customer service about the high rates and whether there were any options I received an e-mail that seemed almost robotic, if not plain insulting to the intelligence of a WSJ reader:
As of February 1, 2009, the price of an annual Wall Street Journal Online subscription has increased for renewing subscribers.
Rising operational costs force us to charge a bit more for your annual subscription. WSJ.com not only has most of the content in the WSJ newspaper, but many additional online-exclusive features. Over half the site is online-only content produced by more than 60 dedicated WSJ.com editors.
WSJ.com is really a great value. For around 40 cents a day* - WAY less than the price of a cup of coffee - the work of the finest news organization in the world is at your fingertips 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Way less than a cup of coffee? PLEASE. Now if they want to lower the cost back to the wonderful price I first paid a couple of years ago of $79 I can completely justify that. I’m going to express my disdain by simply not renewing. Hopefully Murdoch & Company will begin to get the message.
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