WSJ on iPad will carry $18 monthly price tag


The Wall Street Journal, the daily broadsheet for financial types, is getting a tech savvy makeover with a correspondingly high price tag.

As we haven’t yet had time to acclimatize to and whine about iPad app pricing, no one seems quite sure what to make of the leaked WSJ iPad app pricing. On one hand, getting the actual physical paper delivered to you costs about $29 a month. (That version also leaves an unpleasant newspapery film on your hands and can get soggy in the rain- however, the iPad app can’t wrap glass for shipping, so there’s that.) On the other, the iPhone app for the WSJ tops out at $8 a month.

The WSJ app isn’t ad free either- Coke and FedEx have both purchased three month, $400K advertising packages for it. The new content delivery method is a boon to advertisers, too, because they can target the hell out of you based on your browsing habits. It will be interesting to see how this pans out both for the WSJ app itself and the influence it has on iPad content pricing.

The Wall Street Journal is one of the few news providers that can really get away with setting the bar this high out of the gate. People who don’t get bored easily already willingly shell out for the paper online, and if they’re planning on getting iPads, this will be cost-effective and probably convenient. However, other iPad app purveyors who follow suit may see interest flag tremendously if they expect readers to drop $218 a year on their content. Remember what happened to Newsday when they put up a paywall?

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