I don't know of any newspaper, for example, that runs its Web site at a profit. And the one newspaper Web site that's almost profitable is a great example of the scale of business model innovation that's required in the digital economy. But this is more than just a newspaper issue. A software system unveiled two weeks ago shows that almost any company that deals with the public could soon profit from online content sales. The site that's close to profitability is the online edition of The Wall Street Journal.
Advertising contributes the rest.
I'm interested in. It also tracks and analyzes my stock portfolio and provides detailed profiles of more than 22,000 companies. The site aggressively makes its content available to me anytime, anywhere. I can access the content from my browser-equipped mobile phone or wireless personal digital assistant or even listen to an audio version of the news through my MP3 player. This century-old newspaper is reinventing its value proposition for the digital era.