The analysis is based on an estimated 989,000 subscribers paying $79 per year (accounting for about $78 million annual revenue) and an estimated CPM of $6.

In August, a Lehman analyst had estimated that WSJ.com needed only to double or triple its traffic to offset sub revenue losses, so both estimates are probably subject to wide variations in results.

Notwithstanding of the calculation methodology though, Wang notes that $79 million only amount to about 4% of Dow Jones' revenue.

And clearly, as he has stated before, Rupert Murdoch is aware that making WSJ.com free would result in a short-term loss of revenue. But the real question would be, how much more influence (and money-making potential) would a free Wall Street Journal site have in the long term if it were to remove its paywall soon?

Source: paidcontent.org (picture too)