Wall Street Journal to charge 17.99 dollars a month on iPad

The Wall Street Journal plans to charge 17.99 dollars a month for a subscription to the newspaper on Apple's upcoming iPad, it reported Thursday.

The News Corp.-owned Journal is one of a number of US media outlets which have developed applications for the iPad tablet computer, which is to go on sale in stores in the United States on April 3.

The electronic edition of The Wall Street Journal for Amazon's Kindle e-book reader costs 14.99 dollars a month.

The New York Times, which has also developed an iPad application, reported meanwhile that advertisers have been spending heavily to buy advertising space on the iPad applications from various media outlets, including the Times.

The Times said credit card company Chase Sapphire has bought out the newspaper's advertising units for 60 days after the introduction of the iPad.

It said Fedex has bought advertising space on the iPad applications from The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek and others.

Unilever, Toyota, Korean Air and Fidelity have booked space on Time magazine's iPad application, the Times said.

The Wall Street Journal, citing "people familiar with the matter," said six advertisers, including Coca-Cola and FedEx, have agreed to advertise with the Journal, and a four-month ad package costs 400,000 dollars.

US newspapers and magazines have been battling a steady slide in advertising revenue, falling circulation and the migration of readers to free news online, and a number of US publishers have been looking to the iPad as a potential new source of subscription and advertising income.