I have been a loyal subscriber to The Wall Street Journal since 1987. Or I should say a loyal subscriber until last week. It seems that the WSJ has decided to reward my loyalty by charging me 76% more then what they charge new customers.

As a new customer I can get a deal where I pay $99 for a year of service plus eight weeks free. As a subscriber of 20 years the best deal that I can get is $353.62 for two years. When a sales rep told me that the only way I could get the deal was to cancel my account, I did. My thought at the time was that I would just start over in 90 days

But now I don’t really miss it that much. I might not renew at all.

Moral of the story; don’t take advantage of your most loyal customers. If you do, they will find out, get annoyed, perhaps come to the conclusion that the value is no longer there, and then tell all their friends about it.