Indicating confidence readers will still pay for accurate business information despite the availability of the internet, Wall Street Journal will increase its US newsstand price from $1 to $1.50 from July 16 while the Financial Times will go from £1 ($1.97) to £1.30 ($2.56). Currently courting WSJ’s Dow Jones parent, Rupert Murdoch has previously rubbed his hands with excitement that proprietors can still charge for trusted financial journalism in the internet age. Both are bucking downward sales trends – in the UK, the FT, which redesigned in April, is largely alone amongst newspapers in growing any circulation (ABC), while WSJ also bucked a trend by adding a small amount in the last six-month period (FAS-FAX).
Their performance in the face of industry-wide print pessimism is impressive, but we will see if what are rather considerable increases (50 percent in WSJ’s case) will reverse that trend. FT on Saturday will go up to £1.80 ($3.54) while WSJ will remain unchanged at $1.50. WSJ’s subscription price (90 percent of readers, so low-risk) will also be unchanged. FT said its first price hike in five years was due to recent investments in growing its international news operations and redesigning. (Via AP/IHT, Guardian).