The wsj.com website is “Free Today”. I’ve always been frustrated when I’m internet surfing and someone references a wsj.com article. I don’t have a subscription and the articles always have enticing titles and the links are always on quality articles. I just know the wsj.com article is good, but I can’t access it unless I’m subscribed.

So why free? It appears that Rupert believes that the site should be free to unleash its potential and reach. This is an experiment to test the waters. The site is one of the few internet news sites that is able to command a high subscription fee. It costs $99/year to gain access to the online counterpart to the journal.

Why make it free when you can charge?

There are multiple financial models on the internet. The most common is subscription and the second is free for all and charge for advertising. The latter garners a much larger audience. The trick is which will yield the most revenue? In wsj.com’s case, Rupert believes it needs to shift to the free model. The journal has over 1400 writers and has arguably some of the best financial and non-financial content. In fact it is the only newspaper I read on a daily basis. Excluding non-local news, I believe it is the best news source out there in print.

A Bigger Plan

It is no secret that Rupert plans on launching a financial news channel. Financial news is good business on TV. CNBC commands the highest ad rates on television. Considering Rupert’s media skills it wouldn’t be a stretch to expand the WSJ brand into television. They already have all the writers they need. Fox has the production skills. Wsj.com would be the website. WSJ would also provide the brand known throughout the world.

The acquisition of the Wall Street Journal gave Rupert Murdoch a respected global brand to leverage into other media outlets. He will have in my opinion a formidable competitor to CNBC. Rupert will have 1 thing CNBC didn’t have when it launched – a loyal newspaper readership, and web visitors so loyal they are willing to pay for the privilege. Just imagine the value of those readers to advertisers. The integrated strategy will strengthen the brand and will expand tv viewership, online readership, and perhaps even the circulation of the underlying journal itself.

Damn you’re good Rupert. Hats off to you.

*UPDATE [9/19/07]* Still Free today!

*UPDATE [9/20/07]* Somehow I missed it, but the New York Times set their website free also.

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Amazon’s Unbox has a nice tie-up with Tivo. Since I just purchased a Tivo this is of interest to me. However from a business perspective I think Apple will lose many potential customers. iTunes is a powerhouse in online distribution. I doubt Unbox will be a perfect substitute for that distribution channel.

The whole situation made me think. My Tivo gets updates periodically. I can even have other “server” type apps running on my Windows machine that my Tivo can talk to. The point is its software updatable. If Apple did the same with their Apple TV they could potentially turn it into a DVR system. You could buy your music/movies online. You could record your shows. It would be a killer box. DVR’s have been around a long time. Tivo is great. However I find the Tivo to be a bit slow in processing. It doesn’t have the strength of Apple’s brand or its cult following.

If Apple bought Tivo, they’d gain access to all its current subscribers. Apple would no doubt pump up the hardware with their own design. They could also replace the interface completely with their own clean design. Apple could do it. Actually the best thing would be for Apple to license Tivo. After all its not the hardware that makes Tivo great. Its just software. Will it happen? Probably not. My guess is Apple doesn’t want you to DVR stuff when they can sell it to you.

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I finally received my Tivo. It came pre-activated which was nice. I had a few quirks again that I noticed. At first I thought “I never received the email that it was shipped that I was supposed to.” I got my Tivo around 2pm. At 3:30pm I received an email saying my Tivo had shipped along with the tracking number. Strange huh?

Anyhow I have a new toy. I’m greatful for the onscreen guide powered by TV Guide. That and the season pass feature and recording of 2 shows at once will greatly enhance my TV viewing pleasure.

Related Posts:

• Customer Service for Dummies

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[youtube]SWksEJQEYVU[/youtube]

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I ordered a Tivo 7 business days ago. I specifically say business days because my order was supposed to arrive in 4-6 business days. Today was day 6 so I called. See for yourself how the conversation went with customer service.

Today is the 6th business day since I ordered my Tivo. The order said 4-6 business days for delivery. I call them today and the guy comes back:

“Yes I ordered a Tivo 6 business days ago and I have yet to receive it.”

“OK let me check. [1 minute passes] Good news sir. Your box is on back order.”

“OK so what does that mean to me?”

“You haven’t been charged yet. You can cancel or wait.”

“How is that good news?”

“Well you haven’t been charged.”

“That’s not really good news. How come I didn’t get notified that it was on back order? How long am I supposed to wait?”

“Ummm I’d give it another week.”

Do all providers of video service to the home (save for youTube) get together on weekly customer service meetings to ensure one of them doesn’t outdo the other by treating the customer properly?

Perhaps I’m overreacting, but the last interaction with the cable company to cancel our cable internet went down pretty badly as well. Sadly we signed up for Comcast residential cable a few months ago. Odd thing is we are paying half what we used to for our “business” internet, yet our connection is twice as fast. Strange how the physics of the video giants works sometimes.

Until youTube can provide all my video needs I’m stuck with these video giants. What I really want is IPTV to take off. Let me buy what I watch, not these other filler channels I have to flip through because I’m too lazy to delete them or “just in case” something cool eventually comes on one of those channels. Let me buy the 7 or 8 channels I watch. No more, no less. I will be fine without 10 Spanish channels, 8 shopping channels, and the 1 channel that shows the Windows screensaver 24×7.

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Watch the Cramer Video

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I grew up on Electric Company and Sesame Street. Even if I didn’t learn my alphabet from TV, I learned that there is such a thing as calm stimuli-free TV. Now that seems counter-intuitive. How can TV be stimuli-free. Well it doesn’t cause me to start jittering, jump up and smack my brother, or otherwise act a fool. That’s what I mean. So yes, it did stimulate but in a positive way.

If there’s any public entity that I’d support it would be PBS. Sure X-Men was cool, but Wolverine never taught me how to connect C with A with T to form the word cat. If there was some mangling to be done, I’d give Wolverine a buzz. If I needed a terror camp destroyed, G.I. Joe was never too far away. I always came back to PBS at some point though.

It greatly hurts to see a great institution, a worthwhile investment seeing its budget cut. What message does this make? Education is not that important? Education is important in all its forms: the classroom, peer-to-peer social interactions, as well as entertainment.

Generations from now it will become even easier to cut education. A generation taught by example that it is not that important will learn to lose value for it. While other nations begin to prosper on the backbone of education, knowledge, and open communication others will decay in its absence.

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