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The digital chief for The Wall Street Journal covered a range of issues - from adding coverage to a loss of online display advertising - at a media summit in London recently.
Gordon McLeod, as reported in the Guardian, said that WSJ.com may expand politics and sports coverage, admitted that the soft U.S. economy was causing a decrease in online advertising, and said the Journal would not be abandoning its paid model just yet. Rupert Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp., which purchased WSJ parent company Dow Jones last December, said during the World Economics Forum in Switzerland in January that the “greatest insights” available from the Journal would remain a subscription service.
Abandoning the paid subscription model has been a hot topic since News Corp. acquired Dow Jones. The WSJ.com dropped its paid barrier for some items in January.
McLeod, who oversees WSJ.com, MarketWatch and Barrons, said that the free audience for the WSJ and the paid audience are virtually the same: upmarket males. With the belief that more eyeballs are better, even if they’re not paying, McLeoad said that the digital Journal may introduce more sports and politics to connect with the male demo.
The print edition of the paper has recently added more sports reporting, as well, and is said to be considering beefing up its political reporting in a bid to compete with The New York Times.
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Below, fiscal results from the discount retail giants:
Sales of food and…
