A possible business opportunity
Rupert Murdoch’s speculation that he might make wsj.com a free site (it currently retails at $99 per year and has 931,000 subscribers) made the news the other day. It is hard to see why he would give up $90 million in revenue, but such musings certainly draw attention away from another potential business opportunity that perhaps lies within his grasp.
In the midst of cataloging the declining fortunes of the New York Times, Forbes recently identified one area where the Gray Lady is still pre-eminent:
According to TNS Media Intelligence, the Times held a commanding 49.6% share of all national advertising in 2006 among leading national newspapers, including Gannett’s USA Today and the Journal.
In 2006, that 49.6% share translated into $938 million in revenues for the NYT’s news media group. There is no particular reason that this commanding 50% market share and $938 million in revenue have to adhere to the New York Times. Indeed, seeing a competitor — particularly an inept one — with 50% market share, is almost the textbook definition of a business opportunity.
If there is an upscale national daily newspaper, it would appear to be the Wall Street Journal, rather than the New York Times. The WSJ sells 2.1 million papers a day, versus 1.2 million for the NYT (and 1.6 million on Sunday). However, even with its success, the WSJ would appear to present an under-exploited business opportunity, with no Sunday edition, limited general news, few advertising inserts, and the like.
We are not in a position to analyze the wisdom of using the global resources of News Corp to introduce a print edition of the Sunday Wall Street Journal at modest editorial expense, but that 50% NYT market share and $938 million in national advertising revenues look like very juicy opportunities at first blush. Oddly enough, the New York Times story on Murdoch and the WSJ said, “based on his history, there is little doubt that Mr. Murdoch will directly aim at luring both readers and advertising away from The New York Times,” but never asked about his possibly taking aim at the Times’ highly profitable Sunday edition.
August 11th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
I just read on a blog that WSJ.com might not be able to go free because of other agreements. here is the text -
WSJ.com has agreements with Lexis Nexis, Facitva, Congoo and several other distributors that specifically prohib them from removing the pay wall. They might go free but they will have to pay millions in settlements to do it.