The Journal Will Work Weekends

I'm not ashamed to admit it -- I love free stuff. When TheWashington Post (NYSE: WPO) offered me 20 weeks of free daily newspapers for the price of just the Sunday edition, I was in. Whenever Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), and Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) forget that I took them up on their free trial offers for movies by mail a few months before, then dumped them, and they offer a re-up free of charge -- hey, I jump on it.

So color this Fool elated at the announcement that flashed across my computer screen on Wednesday: Dow Jones' (NYSE: DJ) Wall Street Journal plans to launch a weekend edition starting Sept. 10, and there will be no extra charge. Woo hoo! Wait till the guys and gals over on the Fool's Living Below Your Means board hear about this. We may just throw an online party.

According to Dow Jones, the new weekend edition will feature the usual business and financial news, as well as a new section titled "Pursuits." (Not sure what that's all about, but hey, it's free.)

But enough about the benefits for WSJ subscribers; Dow Jones investors will probably want to know what's in it for them. After all, they are the ultimate owners of the newspaper that will be giving away 20% of its current content, gratis. Well, Dow Jones admits that the addition of the weekend edition is going to crimp earnings a bit, terming it "modestly dilutive." That's logical. But I suspect that Dow Jones investors have little to worry about from this development. For one thing, the majority of them probably subscribes to the paper and so will reap some personal benefit even if their investment returns do slow somewhat. For another -- and here's where you really have to read the press release carefully -- the announcement says the new edition will start running on Sept. 10. Today, for those who haven't had their cup of Starbucks (Nasdaq: SBUX) yet, is Sept. 16. That's right. Read the announcement again and you'll see that Dow Jones is not actually going to roll out its supplement for another 359 days.

Color this freebie-loving Fool cynical. But that sounds like plenty of time to hike the subscription price for the five-day version of the WSJ by oh, say, 20%.

For more Foolish news and commentary on the financial press, read:

• MarketWatch Returns to Life
• Content and Discontent
• Thomson Jilts Reuters

Fool contributor Rich Smith owns shares of Netflix but of no other company mentioned in this article.