· Different Pricing Models

On the way up to Boston yesterday, I sat behind someone on the plane reading the Wall Street Journal. I saw an article I was interested in (something about the Governor of my great state of SC being missing, or something like that).

So, I pulled out my iPhone opened the Wall Street Journal app and read the article for myself. But it got me thinking – why would the WSJ give me that article for free (through the free app) and charge my silver-haired friend on the plane for his newspaper copy of the same thing?

Not sure, but it seems WSJ is doing what a lot of newspapers are doing – jumping into the online world with both feet before thinking through their proper models of service, who reads the paper and how to charge for their online (or iPhone app) services. It seems that if you charge one patron, but don’t charge another, that will eventually tick off everyone.

What do you think? Does the WSJ actually know what they are doing? Are these different pricing models a mistake that they’ll fix later? Leave it in the comments.

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