Individuals with Ohio State email addresses can now access Wall Street Journal subscriptions for free. Credit: Madison Wallace | Lantern Reporter
Anyone with an Ohio State email address has immediate, free access to the Wall Street Journal beginning this week.
The university’s Undergraduate Student Government has launched its long-term initiative to bring free WSJ subscriptions to students and faculty alike, with the hope that it will alleviate some educational costs for students, as well as keep them informed, said Bobby McAlpine, USG president and fifth-year in regional planning and political science.
“The Wall Street Journal was one of the most-used news sources for students, especially in the Fisher College of Business and College of Arts and Sciences,” McAlpine said. “When it comes to having readings for classes in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times, a lot of times, we were hearing that students were having to pay for multiple months-long subscriptions for just a semester of classes.”
The WSJ — founded in 1889 — is known for “chronicling the rise of global industries and economies,” as well as business-related and financial news coverage, according to its website.
McAlpine said the movement to secure a partnership with the publication began last year, in collaboration with former USG Vice President Madison Mason, after seeing the success of the university’s USG-driven collaboration with the NYT, which McAlpine said will still be intact.
“Once we saw how the New York Times subscription had grown so much, we wanted to try to expand it,” McAlpine said. “Students really loved it, and they enjoyed being able to stay up to date on world events, as well as use it for classes.”
Hayden Price, a third-year in biomedical sciences and senior initiatives counselor for USG’s executive branch, said in an email this is the biggest initiative he has helped lead since stepping into the role.
“Getting students access to reliable news sources is a major priority for this year’s USG administration,” Price said. “We hope that combining this with our current offering of the New York Times will allow students to get high-quality news from a number of sources without any cost-barrier.”
McAlpine said he hopes students will stay informed by engaging with unbiased news organizations, an action that helps students be more civically minded and educated on current events.
“USG is very, very excited that we were able to secure this for the entire student body, just to ease a few levels of financial burden,” McAlpine said. “We jumped through a lot of bureaucracies in the university trying to land big contracts like this, and we couldn’t be happier that we were successful.”
Students can sign up for their free subscription here, using their Ohio State email addresses.
To sign up for the free NYT subscription, students can go to the publication’s webpage.
