Saturday Journal
I woke up this Saturday (a rare Saturday in the OC) and upon opening my garage door to go drive and buy a LA Times (as I am rarely in the OC on Saturdays, I have no need for weekend delivery), found the very first Saturday issue of the Wall Street Journal waiting for me. Needless to say, this resulted in me forgoing the trip to purchase a LA Times and I went back inside to drink my coffee and read this debut issue.
As I worked my way through the Saturday WSJ, I could not help but wonder why Dow Jones & Company is making this move. As a very devoted WSJ reader (for almost a decade), I can honestly say that the fact that I do not receive a WSJ on Saturdays is really not a big issue for me. It is the weekend, and I am generally not at work, so, I like to read something non-business. Plus, I love the Weekend Journal section of the Friday WSJ and usually hold that out on Friday to be read over the weekend.
So, I am a little perplexed at the reasoning here. As far as I can tell, there has not been an increase in pricing (of course this may come later), and I imagine the cost to create, print, and distribute a whole extra paper is substantial. Additionally, I am not sure if the addition of a Saturday paper will draw new subscribers. I mean seriously, if you never subscribed to the WSJ, would the addition of a Saturday paper be the driver in your decision to finally subscribe? I am thinking no - however, I could be wrong. I seem to recall receiving a survey or two regarding the subject - obviously, the folks at Dow Jones & Company were doing their market research. Based on the result, it looks like the feedback must have been positive in regard to a Saturday paper.
Finally, it has to be a bit of a logistical nightmare for the paper and all of the companies it works with to distribute the paper. How many people have the WSJ delivered to their office and need to have it delivered to a different location on Saturday? I have my weekday copy delivered at home (after having one to many papers stolen at the office before I arrived), however, I am generally at my boyfriend's house on Saturdays. So, today, I called the WSJ and had them change the Saturday delivery address to his house.
So, the armchair MBA in me is a little confused. If you are not going to grab larger market share, why bother with the addition of a Saturday addition? Of course, the market research probably indicated otherwise and time will tell as to whether this experiment will work or not. In the meantime, I am going to double my newspaper reading time on Saturdays.....
As I worked my way through the Saturday WSJ, I could not help but wonder why Dow Jones & Company is making this move. As a very devoted WSJ reader (for almost a decade), I can honestly say that the fact that I do not receive a WSJ on Saturdays is really not a big issue for me. It is the weekend, and I am generally not at work, so, I like to read something non-business. Plus, I love the Weekend Journal section of the Friday WSJ and usually hold that out on Friday to be read over the weekend.
So, I am a little perplexed at the reasoning here. As far as I can tell, there has not been an increase in pricing (of course this may come later), and I imagine the cost to create, print, and distribute a whole extra paper is substantial. Additionally, I am not sure if the addition of a Saturday paper will draw new subscribers. I mean seriously, if you never subscribed to the WSJ, would the addition of a Saturday paper be the driver in your decision to finally subscribe? I am thinking no - however, I could be wrong. I seem to recall receiving a survey or two regarding the subject - obviously, the folks at Dow Jones & Company were doing their market research. Based on the result, it looks like the feedback must have been positive in regard to a Saturday paper.
Finally, it has to be a bit of a logistical nightmare for the paper and all of the companies it works with to distribute the paper. How many people have the WSJ delivered to their office and need to have it delivered to a different location on Saturday? I have my weekday copy delivered at home (after having one to many papers stolen at the office before I arrived), however, I am generally at my boyfriend's house on Saturdays. So, today, I called the WSJ and had them change the Saturday delivery address to his house.
So, the armchair MBA in me is a little confused. If you are not going to grab larger market share, why bother with the addition of a Saturday addition? Of course, the market research probably indicated otherwise and time will tell as to whether this experiment will work or not. In the meantime, I am going to double my newspaper reading time on Saturdays.....
posted by The Random Gay Guy at 3:07 PM
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