Skip to Content

Rupert in a snit over iPhone glitch

More
Text SizeAAA

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.
Subscribe to Walletpop

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Vote Now For the Readers' Choice Best in Food Awards
Nominations have been received and vetted for the best-of-breed in gourmet grocers, online gourmet ...
Zingerman's Bakehouse: Artisan Bread and Pastry from Ann Arbor
Zingerman's Bakehouse of Ann Arbor, Michigan, is nominated for a Luxist Award in the best bread ...

Jason Cochran
Jason Cochran Filed under: Bargains, Extracurriculars, Transportation, Travel, Celebs & Money

On board the new Oasis of the Seas: Is it worth the money?

So here I am, writing this from off the coast of Florida as part of the first two-day preview cruise of the magnificent Oasis of the Seas. Royal Caribbean has launched the largest cruise ship in the ...
Geoff Williams
Geoff Williams Filed under: Credit cards

Citigroup holds its customers hostage

Across the nation, Citibank credit card holders are receiving what pretty much amounts to a ransom note: We're going to raise your rates, says the letter, in so many words, but if you spend more ...
Bonnie McCarthy
Bonnie McCarthy Filed under: Budgets, Kids and Money, Saving Money, Technology

Family budgets: Make movie night safe again with family-friendly review sites

Around my house, we don't make the decision to pile into the car and head over to our local Cineplex as easily as we once did. It costs a lot of money these days to see talking animals, wild things ...
Madhusmita Bora
Madhusmita Bora Filed under: Transportation

Shop the friendly skies? The airlines are hoping you'll buy while in the sky

Along with sandwiches and soda, you may one day be able to buy tickets to Lion King and Animal Kingdom while cruising 35,000 feet above ground. A New York Times story reported that the airline ...

Headlines from WalletPop Partners