Rex Ballard - Director of Electronic Distribution
	http://cnj.digex.net/~rballard

On Tue, 15 Oct 1996, B. Compaine wrote:

> Unless I missed a discussion buried in another thread, I haven't seen any
> mention here on an AP report last week with early results of  Dow Jones'
> brave thrust into the world of real subscriptions. 

Dow Jones has been doing real subscriptions for a fair bit of time on a
number of different products.  What makes WSJ Interactive unusual is that
it is less encumbered by fire-walls and Proxy servers.  There are still
problems, but the models are similar to the proposals I submitted to this
list 2 years ago (see my URL for bacground Info).

> According to the report, since Sept 21 Wall Street Journal Interactive has
> signed up 30,000 paying customers, 60%-65% of whom are not print
> subcribers. There are another 100,000 still free trhough the end of the
> year on the MS Explorer deal.

This is only the tip of the Iceberg.  There is a potential for a 20%/month
growth rate once some of the obstructions are lifted.  It has just taken a
while for the billing features introduced a year ago to be integrated into
the commercial browsers.

> The article also says that WSJ Interactive has 30 advertisers paying $5,000
> to $20,000 per month. 

Remeber, Dow Jones has some very strict policies about what they will and
will not allow to be advertized with their content.  There is probably a
huge potential market for Brokers, IPOs, and Advisory columns that is
being turned away.  Dow Jones has been very consistant in their editorial
policies.

> Now one can look at this as an optimist or pessimist as to success so far.
> 30,000 out of a paid subscription of 1.8 million is not much. On the other
> hand, it's likely by far the most successful yet of any "newspaper" getting
> real reader payment from the Web.

Considering the obstacles to registration, the restrictions on the
content, and the relative value of the content, it is actually quite
remarkable.  Firewalls that block SSL and SET transactions are common,
especially on Firewalls such as Interlock, Janus, and Gauntet.  It is
necessary to upgrade the proxies on a box that is often stuck in a room
and ignored for months.

> Some rough calculations indicates that the WSJ-I is pulling in revenue of
> $4.5-$5.0 million annually -- assuming no growth in subscriptions or
> advertising, which is a very conservative view. Of this, rougly 25% is from
> subscriber payments -- generally in line with the ratio of major print
> newspapers.

Again, Dow-Jones is very conservative in their policies.  They don't want
to damage relationships with feed customers and print advertisers.  They
could be making more, but are protecting other important relationships
and protecting other actual and potential products.

> I take an optimistic viewpoint -- it looks encouraging for me. Of course,
> I've been saying for quite awhile that if high quality content such as the
> WSJ can't make a go of a reader support, who will?

There are several economic factors here.  Dow Jones is barely scratching
the surface of what's possible in their content.  Services such as
archives (NRS, WAIS, DowVision) and real-time feed content will require
new technology which can handle loads that are almost unimaginable.

NRS was once available over the internet.  It had to be restricted because
the load over the TCP/IP links was so high that X.25 customers couldn't
get through.


	Rex Ballard
		(Formerly of Dow Jones)

> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Benjamin Compaine
> Bell Atlantic Professor of Telecommunications
> Chairman, Center for Information Industry Research
> Temple University
> 215-204-6434            e-mail:  bcompaine@usa.net
> ***********************************
> http://astro.temple.edu/~ciir
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End of online-news-digest V1 #808
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