Dow Jones has never revealed what its investment in the Web site has been, nor what losses it is making. But Kann claims that the total investment over the five years since it launched is "less than the published numbers for some other Web site losses in a single year."
He claims the losses are currently "modest" -- indeed, he says, if advertising was as strong now as it had been last year, it would now be close to being profitable.
Like other internet businesses, wsj.com has suffered from a downturn in advertising, although this has been less severe than on free sites -- just as advertising in paid-for papers is at a premium to freesheets, so subscription Web sites can charge more for their clicks. Even so, the proportion of revenue from advertising will fall to 40 percent this year from 60 per cent last.
Kann believes others could, and should, follow its subscription route. "A year or two ago, we tended to be seen as eccentric. Now, we get lots of questions about how to do it."
He admits, however, that "once you go down the free route, it is hard to go back the other way."
Not many appear to be planning to try. The FT says it never intended to follow WSJ's lead as it lacked both the subscriber base and its news wires.
Instead of charging for the basic service, therefore, it aims to get revenues from syndicating its content, for example through deals with the Hoover's network or factiva.com, the web-based news and business information service which is owned by Dow Jones and Reuters, and through charging for premium services -- such as FT Mobile, which will bring the site to a Wap phone -- and specialist searches. It is also examining other e-commerce opportunities.
Despite the lack of a fee, and the fall in advertising revenue, the FT has promised that its site will break even by the end of next year. WSJ is making no such claims. "The goal is to be in profit. Whether that is this year or next is irrelevant so long as the trend is in the right direction."
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