Dow Jones Counting Web Noses Along with Print Subscribers to Boost WSJ Circulation Numbers
The Wall Street Journal [PREMIUM] reports on a 16 percent rise in its paid subscription circulation - based on the inclusion of paid online subscriptions with its print base. With average weekday circulation of the WSJ flat at 1,800,650, the 400,000 online-only subscribers (counted as about 290,000 for paid circulation purposes) represents a significant increase, and brings the Journal within spitting distance of USA today's leading circulation. While advertisers are a little uncertain about what this means to them on an apples-to-apples basis when comparing online to print populations, it's a clear indication that online sales are going to lead the news industry out of its perceived slump. The Journal's willingness to accept the necessity of taking online sales seriously early on has certainly yielded them major benefits. Those publishers that lag in creating effective monetization strategies for their online publications will certainly suffer the most, yet it's far from clear the the WSJ's transferral of its general subscription model at a lower rate to Web-delivered content is going to work for other less-prestigious publications - or for the Journal itself in the long run. Building online content value through a widely engaged community will require new techniques for monetization barely explored by most online publishers.