For 125 years, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has been a venerated newspaper with a focus on global business. It was a pioneer in developing a pay wall for its digital content in 1997. From 2010 to 2015, however, WSJ began to lag behind other newspapers (e.g., Financial Times, USA Today). In 2015, WSJ undertook a complete redesign of its website and mobile apps across multiple platforms. In 2008, 10% of WSJs traffic came via mobile devices. That figure sits at 55% in 2016 and continues to grow quickly. WSJ has about 900,000 digital-only subscribers, trailing the New York Times (1 million) and coming in ahead of the Financial Times (over 520,000).

a) Demonstrate the customer lifetime value (CLV) concept. Thinking about WSJ, how could it use the concept of CLV to increase the overall profitability of its customer base?

b) Discuss the importance of distinguishing between customer acquisition and retention when developing marketing strategies.