WSJ.com to be opened to the riff-raff

In a move that will be widely applauded by broke people who are nevertheless interested in finance, Rupert Murdoch said today that he intends to ungate the paid content on the Wall Street Journal's Web site, making it available to the proletariat. Via the AP:

"We are studying it and we expect to make that free, and instead of having one million (subscribers), having at least 10 million-15 million in every corner of the earth," Murdoch said.

They may have to redesign the site for the flood of simple, non-savvy readers coming in, but that shouldn't be a problem. The New York Times cannot like this development one bit.