The stories are big, long-form journalism with a big theme--one described it as a magazine story for that day's edition of the paper. (And in a day--poof!--it's gone!)

Unless you have a subscription to WSJ.com. But then, hadn't Mr. Murdoch talked about making that free? Yes, in November 2007 Mr. Murdoch said he'd make the site available without a subscription in "every corner of the earth."

But according to three people present at the bureau chiefs' meeting last week, Mr. Murdoch has scaled back his ambition to make WSJ.com entirely free. "He said he originally thought making it free would bring in the biggest audience, but that after studying it it's not as simple as he thought," said one person present.

Mr. Murdoch said that they would continue to study it, and there's a strong possibility that a hybrid model would be created perhaps similar to what's being used now (The Journal's news content is currently behind a firewall; its opinion page was opened for free last week).

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