That’s what I’m talking about!
Wall St. Journal is looking to increase sales of its print publication and expand its digital subscriptions, so they offered a partnerhip to Charles Schwab to “sponsor” free samples.
This is classic. The customer gets something he or she wants (free access). The Journal gets what it wants (new trials). And Schwab gets what it wants, exposure to a target audience with the halo effect of “providing” the benefit to the customer.
Now WSJ needs to make it just a bit easier to start a free sub. I went through the process today but was confused by pop up screens, 4 pages of survey questions and couldn’t understand why I was forced to give them my credit card number for a free subscription. A little bit of explanatory copy might have helped me through the process, which I dropped in the middle without completing.
It’s an incredibly successful method that virtually all newspapers utilize: Get you to subscribe via autopay (example: Credit Card) and provide you the content for little or no cost. Then, one day you’ll find a charge for a renewal on your credit card.
Just as it was difficult to actually sign up, wait until you want to cancel! Take a look at the local newspaper website and you’ll find it’s easy to sign up for a subscription by credit card online, but no way to actually cancel online.
It’s not illegal, but I always have thought it was wrong. If they had more faith in their product and it’s worth, they would make it as easy to cancel as it is to start!
Funny you should say all of this – we used to live in suburban Chicago where the Tribune dominates the Sun Times. We made the mistake of accepting a free trial sub for the Sun Times. It ran for 90 days and should have stopped. After about a month we called and asked them to stop. It didn’t stop. We called again and again. At one point we literally complained that they were LITERING on our property. I mean, is is it legal to dump (reccyled newsprint) on someones lawn every day without his permission?? Then, it stopped for a while, but it started again. It was like a ‘trick” birthday candle. The sub that wouldn’t die! That’s why I didn’t submit my WSJ “free” sub request when they asked for my CC.
On the other hand, asking for the CC screens many free loaders who never intend to subscribe. BTW – WSJ launched its re-designed paper and site today, so you can get one day free access to the normally pay per view site.
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