Free WSJ.com Would Need 12-Fold Traffic Growth

Posted Thursday, January 3, 2008 12:00 am

By: E&P Staff A Bear Stearns analyst reports that turning WSJ.com into a free site would require a 12-time increase in traffic growth to offset the lost revenue.

Analyst Spencer Wang says that WSJ.com revenue is currently pegged at $78 million annually, based on an estimated 989,000 subscribers paying $79 per year. Including non-subscriber traffic, the company claims 122.4 million monthly page views. Based on an estimated CPM of $6 and a few other assumptions about sell-through rate and ad impressions per page, Wang arrived at the 12-times conclusion.

Overall, this may not be a huge loss for Dow Jones. Wang notes that $78 million in revenue only accounts for an estimated 4 percent of Dow Jones revenue. If Murdoch sets WSJ.com free, as is widely presumed, it will likely be part of a larger strategy than simply wanting more ad revenue in the short term.

The full story can be read here.

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Free WSJ.com Would Need 12-Fold Traffic Growth

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