The WSJ’s model is pretty simple; readers pay $3.99 a week to read the business centric paper on their mobile devices. It’s an attractive idea to those that don’t like the notion of a paperboy messing up their lawn or having to deal with stacks of newspapers in the recycling bin. The model is also gadget friendly because the e-edition of the paper can be read on a myriad of devices besides Apple’s tablet and Amazon’s e-reader such as Barnes & Noble’s Nook and Android powered tablets.
Just a year ago the WSJ had about 50,000 subscribers which is a fair amount, but when iPad mania hit the US, their numbers skyrocketed. In a single year the business giant added 150,000 new tablet and e-reader based subscriptions. In comparison, the print circulation for the newspaper is 1.6 million. Lee Hinton, the president of WSJ’s parent company Dow Jones Co., points at the influx of gadgets as the reason for the rise. "The actual proliferation of these things is so rapid. What surprised us is that other periodicals than ours (also) seem to be getting good traction.