Very disappointed in Dow Jones and the WSJ customer service
Posted By RichC on July 23, 2025
If you read my blog at all, you know I’m a long time Wall Street Journal subscriber and often quote or reference their content. I’m actually embarrassed to say that I’ve been reading the newspaper version from the 
time before the Internet and had it delivered to my place of business for years. So … it is with disappointment that I’m finally retiring my digital subscription due to a renewal dispute that Dow Jones customer service subscriber retention people were unwilling to fix (it’s not the first time).
It also happens at a time when quite a few conservative pundits (ie. MAGA advocates) have decided to cancel their subscription due to an article a WSJ reporter published on July 17th regarding President Trump. As the story goes, a letter in Jeffery Epstein’s 50th birthday book included a “bawdy letter” from Trump that the POTUS claims was not his. In fact, Trump lawyers threatened to sue and are filing a lawsuit after the publication published it after the denial. This could be true or untrue … but we do know that Trump has both been slandered relentlessly for 10 years … but also has made some pretty derogatory statements in the past.
One wonders if the political bias coming from AI news aggregators will be more or less slanted than journalists and reporters today … I guess we’ll find out? On the WSJ “bawdy letters” story, I think it was a totally unnecessary and will only 
end up hurting subscriber retentions and renewals from the news organizations core readers … especially if they don’t figure out how to better handle renewals (see below).
Nevertheless, in the age of artificial intelligence providing more and more of our day to day information, I do 
know that a single online newspaper subscription is not worth what the WSJ is demanding from renewing subscribers (see next paragraph).
The timing of my subscription dispute (renewal pricing billed at $41.52/ mo for WSJ only online access) made customer services unwillingness to adjust or at least give me something closer to the promotional rates a very poor business decision.
Oh well, BYE-BYE to both the WSJ and Barrons … once again, you disappoint. ☹️
The newspaper industry in 2025 continues to face significant challenges, with a long-term decline in subscriptions correlating with increased internet adoption and the rise of AI in news production and distribution. As of the first quarter of 2025, traditional newspaper circulation—both print and digital—has continued its multi-decade downward trend, while digital news consumption has become the dominant mode of news access globally AI has played a growing role in both content creation and audience engagement, with publishers increasingly adopting AI tools for summarization, translation, and personalization to offset declining traffic from traditional platforms like Google and Facebook
Key developments and trends in 2025 include:
– **Continued decline in newspaper subscriptions**: U.S. daily newspaper circulation (print and digital combined) fell by 8% on weekdays and 10% on Sundays in 2022 compared to the previous year, and this downward trend has persisted into 2025, especially in print editions
– **Digital migration and platform shifts**: As of early 2025, publishers are increasingly focusing on direct audience engagement and building their own digital channels, as referral traffic from platforms like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) has declined significantly—down 67% and 50% respectively over the past two years
– **AI integration in journalism**: Publishers are investing heavily in AI platforms such as OpenAI and Perplexity, with 75% exploring text-to-audio tools and 70% using AI for content summarization. AI is also being used to enhance personalization and recommendation systems, with 80% of publishers citing this as a key use case
– **Search engine traffic concerns**: Despite declines in referral traffic from social platforms, Google remains a critical source of traffic. However, 74% of publishers expressed concern about potential declines in Google search referrals due to the company’s AI Overviews and algorithm changes
These trends reflect a broader transformation in the media landscape, where traditional news brands are adapting to a digital-first, AI-enhanced environment while grappling with audience fragmentation and declining trust
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