The Journal plans to charge subscribers $17.99 per month for iPad subscriptions – for comparison, the print version of the WSJ costs $349 for 52 weeks or about $29 per month. Not bad, but you can’t roll up an iPad to swat the dog.
Conversely, magazines appear set to offer weekly or monthly editions out of the gate, not annual subscriptions. Sources told the WSJ that the April issue of Hearst’s Esquire magazine (no stranger to new media) will arrive in downloadable format without advertisements for $2.99, $2 less than the newsstand price, and will include five music videos (each containing the phrase “somewhere in Mississippi,” oddly enough) to take advantage of the device’s multimedia capabilities. On the other hand, a full iPad issue of Men’s Health with match the glossy’s $4.99 price.
Update – 3/27:
There is a good article in the Atlantic on pricing strategies and revenue opportunities the publishing workd is seeing in the iPad platform. Here is the link and a blurb:
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that it will set monthly iPad subscriptions as $17.99. This is what we in the biz know as cojones. I looked up WSJ subscriptions for Web and print today. It turns out that getting the WSJ on the iPad is more expensive than a subscription to WSJ.com; or WSJ the paper; or WSJ.com and WSJ the paper combined.
Let’s compare the weekly cost of reading the WSJ in various sizes and screens:
On an iPad: $4.15/week
On paper and Web: $3.50
On paper: $2.99
On Web only: $1.99
On iPhone: $1.99Two more data points: Esquire Magazine’s first iPad issue will charge $2 less than its printed version; Men’s Health Magazine will ask for the same price ($4.99).
