WSJ – no longer free.
Google is flat out punishing web sites that provide content that mostly exists behind a paywall.
In February, Wall Street Journal switched from displaying free content, to subscription only and their registered base soared by 30 percent.
At the same time, Google algorithms chopped off a remarkable 44% of its traffic coming from searches.
Wall Street Journal is not happy, obviously, and they want Google to not discriminate against web sites that provide partial or full subscribed content.
In other words, Google encourages content that is 100% free.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal’s parent company, News Corp., has prior friction with Google; in 2009, Murdoch accused Google of stealing articles, threatening to remove his company’s content from Google search results.
For the full coverage on WSJ, visit Bloomberg – while its content is still free, that is.
