WSJ.com Going Social

Paying subscribers to The Wall Street Journal’s Web site (WSJ.com) will see a little more value-added to their Web experience on Tuesday. WSJ.com decided to get a little more social by allowing paying users to comment on stories, create discussion groups, and ask each other for advice.

This “Journal Community” initiative will also enable paying users to create their own profiles. However, these profiles will not be as anonymous as those usually found on forum and comments pages. These WSJ.com profiles will feature real names, job titles/details, and interests, invoking feelings of LinkedIn.

While only a small portion (5%, according to comScore) of WSJ.com’s 4.7 million visitors in July were paying subscribers, they will reap the benefits of a community aspect to WSJ.com that will further justify the price they are paying for premium content on the site.

“Journal Community” is a great move by WSJ.com, and is a great feature for its paying online subscribers. It will make the site stickier, and might entice those who were on the fence about paying for their online subscriptions to open up their wallets.

The level of discussions on the site will also have a leg up on the competition. The paid-subscriptions along with the profiles rooted in reality (and not pseudonyms) are two filters that will help to keep the interactions taking place on the site up-to-par with the high-brow image WSJ.com holds.

WSJ.com also plans on featuring small key icons next to subscription-only content on the site to help non-subscribers to discern which articles are accessible and which are not.

Sources:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10041311-93.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/index.cfm?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=90585