A Wall Street Journal Subscription is Cheaper Than You Think – Get a Discount on the WSJ
By Jeremy on Apr 21, 2009 with Comments 10
Wall Street Journal Discount of 75% or More Equals Big Savings
While many newspapers are vanishing, there’s one paper that has, and should continue to stand the test of time. The Wall Street Journal has been the definitive source for financial news since 1889 when it was delivered by telegraph. Surpassed by only by USA Today, it’s the world’s most widely circulated paper with over 2 million copies delivered each day. If you’re serious about your money and are looking for unique content you can’t find anywhere else, the Wall Street Journal is for you.
There’s a common misconception that the paper is expensive to subscribe to or that if you aren’t relatively close to a major city you can’t have it delivered to your home. Neither of these things could be further from the truth. It doesn’t matter where you live, but you can enjoy daily home delivery for less than a cup of coffee per week.
What to Expect in the Wall Street Journal
Obviously, you can expect a lot of detailed business and finance information in The Journal, but there’s actually a lot more to it. You’ll also receive:
- Summaries of breaking stories, coupled with 24/7 online updates.
- Expert insight on the market and economy and how both can impact your everyday finances and personal investments.
- Expanded coverage of major global stories, political events, medical breakthroughs and emerging technologies.
- Detailed information on stocks, bonds, and mutual fund performance and trends.
- Arts, food & wine, real estate, travel bargains, and weekend getaways.
How Much Does it Cost?
Here’s the best part. Having the Wall St. Journal delivered to your home every day will cost you less than a cup of Starbucks each week. Even when they aren’t running any subscription promotions, you can subscribe to the print edition of the WSJ for less than $3 per week. That’s it! Even better, when you can find one of the numerous promotions it’s often 75% or more off the newsstand price. Most of the time you can find a subscription to the print edition for just over $2 a week.
If you want to save even more money, you can subscribe just to the online version for under $2 a week. You’ll save some trees and still get premium access to all of the content on WSJ.com. And if you’re like me, I enjoy having the option of print or online editions. I primarily read the print edition, but when I’m on the road or otherwise mobile, it’s great to be able to pull up the content from my computer as well. There are usually good combo specials running where you can get the print and online edition for just a few dollars more.
You might be thinking that $2 to $3 each week starts to add up, but consider the other stuff you spend money on and what value that brings to your life. Chances are you can’t find a better use for a couple dollars a week if you want to stay abreast with what’s going on in the world of finance and improve your own financial situation.
What I found shocking was that getting the WSJ was cheaper than our local paper. We used to subscribe to the South Bend Tribune and it seemed reasonable at around $14/month. But after a few months I realized that it was lacking in original content and most of the stories were just pulled from the Associated Press or covered pointless little local events I had no interest in. So there we were, paying about $14/month and the paper was more often than not just tossed aside before hitting the weekly recycling bin. So, I was pleasantly shocked to find that I could subscribe to a much higher quality paper that covers more of the stories I want to read about, and do it all for less money each month.
Current Deals
The Wall Street Journal is One of the Highlights of My Day
I don’t know about you, but it’s great getting off the computer for a little bit each day. I spend all day on a computer so there’s nothing more refreshing than picking up something tangible to read instead of staring at a glowing screen. There has always been an argument that you can pretty much get the information you need online for free. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of my news comes from a few quick glances at various news sites throughout the day. But by the time I get home at night, one of the last things I want to do is spend another 45 minutes or an hour on the computer just catching up with the latest news. This is where the print edition of The Wall St. Journal comes in handy.
Having the actual paper to read provides the respite I need from the other activities of the day. I can lie back in my recliner, sit out on the porch on a warm evening, or even fold the paper up and take it to a local coffee shop or other venue. I don’t need to be hunched over at my desk or sitting with a notebook computer on my lap. I don’t have to worry about finding a seat close to an electrical outlet or be concerned with how much battery life my laptop has. That’s just me, but having some good reading material delivered each day that can be absorbed at my leisure without the need of a computer is worth every penny.
Give It a Try
If you’re still not sure, the good news is that you can cancel your subscription at any time. Give them a call and you will not be billed for any undelivered issues. So if you try it for a few weeks and decide you don’t like it, you’re only out a couple bucks. But I think you’ll be quite pleased with the content. I live in about the most rural area you can imagine, and my delivery started 4 days after signing up, and it hasn’t missed a day yet. I know I love sitting down and flipping through the paper each day. There’s always at least a few good reads to make that 38 cents for each issue worth it.
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Filed Under: Personal Finance
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The WSJ is the last paper we’d expect to go under, like the Seattle Post Intelligencer did…. but less than a cup of Starbucks/week is pretty cheap indeed. I have a love-hate relationship with paper news – love to hold it, read it, buy it, but it sits and takes up space, needs to be recycled. But it’s great when you’re on vacation – first thing I do in any new place is get the local paper and read up on it.
in college, my finance professors would make us read from the WSJ to write our financial term papers on – pretty easy reading, and has reviews for students.
They should take a page from Economist magazine and do their pricing like:
Print Only – $2.99/week
Online Only – $1.99/week
Print + Online – $2.99/week
We stupidly perceive print + online as the best deal, and WSJ makes the most money.
I like WSJ, but don’t have time to read the paper every day and the online content is only worth about $10 a year for me. It’s good, I’m just cheap.
I actually get my WSJ subscription using airline miles. Love getting that paper, but they have some trouble with deliveries where I live – some times they mail it to me – which makes the whole thing a waste of time.
My WSJ subscription is through my Kindle – are there any discounts for GenX on Kindle delivery?
if you are not in an area that has a carrier available (anyplace not close to a city with a population above 200,000) they mail it to you a day late every day. If you call in and complain about it they will give you a discount if anyone wants to save money.
The WSJ is a quality newspaper for certain. I wouldn’t expect them to go under the way many other papers have. Unlike a lot of them who allow the reader to read all articles online for free (thus denying themselves revenue) the WSJ isn’t like that. It’s a sound business practice to charge for the articles and I’d expect nothing less from the Journal.
I think charging for an online newspaper is one way to lose new readers, it should just be $1.99 for print – online is free!
It’s amazing how big of discounts some companies give to lure first time subscribers/members.
I get most of what I need on my blackberry app(s) so I don’t subscribe to any newpapers (print or online). The rest of the news I get are from cable news channels or on facebook and twitter.
Keith