WebProNews

Making the Wall Street Journal's online subscription model go the way of the dodo could boost the paper's Internet readership, along with its revenue. Later tonight, the New York Times will abandon Times Select, its subscription wall for op-ed and much of its archived content. It's been hinted that the Journal's new owner, Rupert Murdoch, will follow that example.

The media mogul addressed his contemporaries at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia event in New York. When the topic of a free WSJ.com arose, Reuters cited Murdoch as saying, "'If you make it free, it will hurt the paper' -- I don't think so. That looks the way we're going."

Although the Journal picks up plenty of subscribers willing to pay for online access to its content, they could be leaving a lot of money in the form of ad revenue out on the wire. That's one of the reasons why the Times opted to dump its unloved Times Select.

Times writer Richard Pérez-Peña cited search engine traffic as a motivator for the shift away from Times Select. Visitors arriving from links in search results at Google and other engines would hit the subscription wall and promptly leave the site.

Each time that happened, the Times lost a chance for an ad impression. Murdoch isn't known for leaving money on the table, so we won't be surprised to see the Journal go the audience supported route as well online.