PipStop

When I lived in the United States it was great to be able to subscribe to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. When I subscribed to the WSJ I also had – at various times – access to their subscription services, which included any sort of search into their news database.

We’ve seen the evolution of paid subscriber based services for some of the world’s leading newspapers. The NYT tried it for two years and subsequently abandoned it on Sept. 18, 2007, so all its archives dating back to 1851 are now searchable for free.

Now with News Corp.’s purchase of Dow Jones & Co., Chairman Rupert Murdoch has announced that the WSJ is going to be dropping their subscription fees, also.

I don’t subscribe to the print version of either, but I do have a print subscription to the Financial Times, which isn’t abandoning is subscription fees, but is increasing what it offers for free.

As an aside because my Financial Times comes via mail, it’s extremely random. Just last week I found myself reading the Oct. 8 issue. And as those in the office will attest, my salmon colored newspapers sometimes comes in stacks of 10 or so, putting me back on my reading.

So there you have it, more things for free. What this means to all of us – especially as traders is that we have more access to some of the best news coverage that’s available in our part of the world.

It all helps as we try to collectively figure this trading puzzle out.

- sam