Rupert in a snit over iPhone glitch
Filed under: Entrepreneurship, Technology
The web may be a wonderland for free information, but there's been one notable holdout. The Wall Street Journal, that bastion of conservative economic thought, has, like its money-minded soul sister The Economist, held out on joining most other publications in granting access to its full content for free online. (A smart move, if you ask me, since it expects to survive.) If you want online access to all of the Journal's hard-core market analysis and hard-earned in-depth reporting, you have to pay at least $103 a year to get a web subscription to read much more than the major headline stories.But the Wall Street Journal is also a favored publication of trend-seekers and conspicuous consumers everywhere, and those readers are carrying the electronic toy du jour: iPhones. The WSJ simply had to have a little program for the iPhone if it was going to remain relevant. So it recently put one out in the form of an "app," distributed by Apple.
Unfortunately for the editors at the Journal, though, Apple hasn't yet figured out a safe or easy way to charge iPhone users for the things they do within apps sold at its App Store. So anything from the Journal that you can read on an iPhone (or an iPod Touch) is not charged.
The Columbia Journalism Review reports that the Journal's ultimate bossman, Rupert Murdoch, has his knickers in a twist over the loophole and has come down hard on the people who let it happen. The app, though, isn't being retracted, at least for now. Unfortunately, the technology for charging iPhone users for the WSJ's content won't be available until the fall at least, "by which time the Journal app's user base will have gotten good and used to getting it for free," as the CJR puts it.
An iPhone starts at $199 with a two-year contract. If regular Journal readers drop their online subscriptions and deduct the cost from that purchase price, they will theoretically pay just $96 for the device. That is, if Murdoch doesn't find a way to plug this loophole as soon as he can. I hear the guy's pretty good with money.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-11-2009 @ 12:13PM
TT-REXXX said...
DON'T BY THE IPHONE SIMPLE
Reply
5-11-2009 @ 7:26PM
Joshua said...
Hey TT-Rexxx, are you seriously urging people not to buy an iPhone because WSJ decided to develop an app and put it out without waiting for 3.0 to launch(which allows subscriptions)? How in the world is Apple at fault for another companies ignorance on their own financial opportunities? If you ask me, WSJ should of looked at all angels before moving forward with the development of said application. Get your narrow-minded Apple hating head of your ass.
5-11-2009 @ 1:38PM
Lachlan said...
of course it's free on Crackberry too (pretty sure anyway though i do have a online sub as well) so presume it is not necessary just an issue about paying for iPhone apps???
obviously lot of bankers and other core WSJ readership would have BB rather than iPhone i suspect
though Rupe said in the earnings conference call last week that will change soon and he will charge for mobile reader (though i presume as part of online subs)...also baulking at the Kindle
Reply
5-11-2009 @ 7:28PM
Jonathan said...
Just because the application is free doesn't mean they couldn't have a sign in system on the iPhone to allow people with online WSJ pay accounts to access certain things that normal users couldn't. Lots of applications do that.
Clearly this is the way they want it.
Reply
5-11-2009 @ 8:09PM
aaron krill said...
the "technology" to charge users for app content is coming in a month. several developers already have applications with this "technology" built-in working and approved by Apple for release at the WWDC.
Reply
5-11-2009 @ 8:48PM
Steve said...
The unlocked version of the iphone had a licensed system since the iphone basically came out...
5-12-2009 @ 1:09AM
Ruggy said...
Murdoch is such a technophobe.
Clearly, the WSJ could use the iPhone app as a way to lure new subscribers. Simply turn it into fully functioning nagware until the user enters a code which would be granted any subscriber, which then silences the popups.
Duh!!!
Reply
5-12-2009 @ 8:27AM
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5-12-2009 @ 10:13AM
lilykudrow said...
The unlocked version of the iphone had a licensed system.
Was reading here for some updates on Apple and iphone:
http://www.techunits.com/content/list/apple
Reply
5-12-2009 @ 11:03AM
Gabriel said...
WSJ could have just charged a flat fee for the app. MLB charges $10 for an application that will expire at the beginning of the 2010 baseball season. You are allowed access to listen to all baseball games for this season, next year another (insert dollar amount here) will be charged.
Remember the Milk has a "free" app that expires after one month and to keep using it is $25 for the year. WSJ had plenty of options available to them. They simply did not do their research.
Oh, and Murdoch, thanks for the free news. I'm really not interested in giving you any of my money.
Reply
5-23-2009 @ 6:20PM
Enid Buttfield said...
Tell you what Rupert, why don't you and your organisation pay some tax, and maybe we'll think about it. news org is an evil corporation that bullies its way with governments around the globe and never pays any tax. As a news gathering organisation it plays fast and loose with the truth, telling any lies in order to put the people in power that he wants
It is an insidious monster that deserves cutting to size.
I quote the late Dennis Potter " I call my cancer Rupert. Because that man Murdoch is the one who, if I had the time (I've got too much writing to do)... I would shoot the bugger if I could. There is no one person more responsible for the pollution of what was already a fairly polluted press. And the pollution of the press is an important part of the pollution of British political life, and it's an important part of the cynicism and misperception of our own realities that is destroying so much of our political discourse. "
Reply
5-12-2009 @ 6:09PM
Luke said...
Rupert... Rupert.. wake up, it's 2009! :-)
Reply
5-16-2009 @ 11:08AM
al said...
Rupert and co looking for more money hmmm. Any way grab yourself free paid apps at http://www.WhchWebsite.com I have several iPhone app giveaways running
Reply
5-16-2009 @ 11:12AM
al said...
Sorry incorrect website address for the comment above it is http://www.WhichWebsite.com
Reply