Murdoch's free WSJ.com could hurt parts of Dow

By Kenneth Li and Robert MacMillan

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's plan to stop charging for access to The Wall Street Journal's Web site looks certain to increase online profits but could hurt other parts of Dow Jones & Co Inc business.

Free access would open up one of the world's premiere business news sources to all readers, attracting a flood of online advertising revenue and spreading the venerable business paper's reach around the globe.

But the plan could undercut Dow Jones's Internet news archive Factiva and its Dow Jones Newswires, which offer Wall Street Journal content that is unavailable anywhere else, Dow Jones spokeswoman Christine Mohan said.

Dow Jones's Enterprise Media division, which includes Factiva and Newswires, contributed only 35 percent of revenue but accounted for 67.2 percent of segment operating income in the first nine months of the year.

"The exclusivity of Journal content provides value beyond the Web site," Mohan said.

The exact impact is hard to come by, but Journal Publisher Gordon Crovitz said at a media industry conference in October that Dow Jones reaps more than half a billion dollars in subscription revenue across the company's offerings.

News Corp Chairman Murdoch began touting the benefits of a free Journal Web site even before agreeing to buy Dow Jones for $5.6 billion earlier this year.

He made his most forceful comments in Adelaide, Australia, this week, when he told shareholders he wants to boost WSJ.com's 1 million online subscribers to as high as 15 million "in every corner of the earth."