Too Epic // The Wall Street Journal cripples its Print Page feature

Too Epic

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Mar 5 10:42 pm

The Wall Street Journal cripples its Print Page feature

And digs itself deeper into irrelevance.

Traditional publishers have resorted to perverting their online content with needless pagination and obnoxious advertisements.

So what does poor Jimmy Reader do when he has to print a physical copy of the article for whatever reason? Click the nice “Print Version” button, of course.

Oh, what’s that, Mr. Publisher? You can’t get ad revenue from a print page? Some readers are resorting to clicking “Print Preview” and then pressing their convenient little Read Later bookmarklet because they’re fed up with your shenanigans?

Ah, so rather than offer readers real incentives to pay for content or employing less obtrusive advertising techniques, you make your Print Previews completely worthless.

And if you think that’s funny, try requesting a WebReprint. The Wall Street Journal now charges $475 to link to one of its articles. For a month. And then the URL expires.