Print Version of WSJ for Free, But
Went to the OPA breakfast this ayem at the Reuters building in NY and was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of my favorite media people there, and a good study from Northwestern’s Media Management Center presented (more on that later).
On our chairs was a copy of The Wall Street Journal “compliments of Dow Jones Online”. They’re a sponsor of this OPA roadshow presentation touring a number of U.S. cities. I can’t help but wonder what effect giving the print organ really does in a forum like this. What is “Dow Jones Online”? I already subscribe to (and am happy with) WSJ.com, which I can get through my various devices (though it’s difficult on my Blackberry), aggregate with other publications in e-mail or RSS feeds, and I don’t have to carry the paper around all day. Is giving the paper away, especially sponsored by Dow Jones Online, effective for an online group like this? I suppose if Dow Jones Online comes to my company for sponsorship, that might help a little. And I’m happy for the free paper, and their free sponsorship of the event. But …
My bliss will come when Dow Jones and everyone else makes it possible for my handheld to get their RSS feeds – no, my RSS feeds, a slice and dice of everything I want – on my various devices. So I can get choice headlines from every publication or service, all aggregated and waiting for me, all in my breast pocket that I can read online or off. All for one low-low (or free) price. Like the cable TV model, but I get to choose the channels, and the delivery mechanism.