Extra: WSJ Online Profits Outstrip Print

The NYPost reported that the Wall Street Journal's online edition was for the first time more profitable than its print edition — big news. What are the takeaways?

This development reflects the increasing trend/preference for getting news online vs. traditional print. But don't look for papers generally to be able to duplicate what WSJ Online has done.

Charging for content online is something that most newspapers will not be able to do, chiefly because of news aggregators such as Yahoo! News, which keep getting better, and the proliferation of RSS readers, which similarly provide access to hundreds of information sources.

Online classifieds competition makes the task of relying on advertising also challenging.