how-we-think-things-work

NYT.com vs WSJ.com: Two Kinds Of Uncertainty

Rebecca · 03/12/08 01:51PM

We all want free news. But newspapers want this funny thing they call a sustainable business model. The New York Times, after a failed experiment in asking people to pay for Thomas Friedman's consoling mustache, finally decided to go all in with a free site. For a paper with mass appeal, being free means more page views, which means more ad revenue. The Wall Street Journal has the luxury of banks and brokerage houses that will gladly pay for its exclusive analysis. But under Australian tyrant Rupert Murdoch, the Journal now wants a piece of that general audience too. And as the Journal introduces more politics and sports into their coverage, they're still wrestling with the paywall question, and Rupert's taking a surprisingly conservative path.