WSJ Struggles With Kindle Delivery; Waiting For News Corp.'s E-Reader?
This story was written by David Kaplan.
While News Corp (NYSE: NWS). CEO Rupert Murdoch wants to back an e-reader device to rival the Kindle, subscribers are becoming annoyed with the series of delivery delays WSJ has had on the Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) device lately.
Here's the message that went out to Kindle owners who pay $9.99 a month for access to WSJ on the device:
April 3, 2009
Dear Customer,
Thank you for subscribing to The Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately,
today's Kindle Edition has been delayed. We are working with the Wall
Street Journal to solve the problem and delivery your newspaper as soon as
possible. Thank you for your patience. The Amazon Kindle Team"
WSJ currently ranks number two on the Kindle list of newspapers, behind the NYT, which charges $13.99 per month for a Kindle subscription. While WSJ is $9.92, there is currently no combined deal for subscribing to both the online and Kindle versions. Considering the relatively small subscribers Kindle newspapers, and that most of its users probably do subscribe to WSJ online, the delivery problems are a minor inconvenience. But it does suggest that despite Murdoch's best efforts to improve Dow Jones' digital properties, the continued delivery problems represent a glaring problem in an otherwise solid strategy.
A DJ rep said that the delay was caused by a glitch this morning and insists that this is the first time they've encountered this kind of problem. Still, other subscribers have told paidContent of more frequent delays lately.
By David Kaplan