The Wall Street Journal ends its Newsstand Holdout and Offers Two Forms of Subscriptions

Much to the surprise of a number of people—this author included—Apple’s Newsstand app has been taking off and becoming a viable source of digital publishing.

Boasting apps from a number of high-profile publications, such as The New York Times and Time Magazine (to name just two), it’s becoming clear that publishers are seeing a source of value and revenue in the once maligned app that was introduced not long ago. Now we can add The Wall Street Journal to the list, as the Dow Jones-owned newspaper has thrown its hat into the Newsstand ring.

Long one of the more well-known publishing holdouts from placing an app of their own in Newsstand, The Wall Street Journal will now offer two subscriptions for users to choose from. There’s the $12.99 a month iPhone-only subscription, and if you’re hoping to read their content on any of your iOS devices—including the iPad—you can spring for the $21.99 subscription. All charges will be applied to your iTunes account and any credit card/form of payment you have tied to it. Both price points offer full access to the Journal’s content, so if you’re someone who has been enjoying the publication in paper form, you might consider going all digital and saving the world some paper/trees.

It’ll be interesting to see if this move will signal a coming boon to subscription-based digital publishing in the App Store, as publishing houses are having no choice but to take a look at the market and choose to adapt or shut down. But still, other publications such as Financial Times are still adamantly rejecting the App Store due to Apple’s insistence on taking 30% of all subscription fees. Financial Times famously withdrew from the App Store last year and urged users to use its HTML 5 web app instead.

It remains to be seen if other publications still holding out for web only subscriptions will later join the Newsstand app. But one thing is for sure, lots of people will add The Wall Street Journal to their Newsstand folder after this week’s launch.

About the Author

Jared Murray is a freelance writer currently living in Phoenix, Arizona.

 

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