By james art 
People with email addresses in the state of Ohio now have free access to Wall Street Journal subscriptions. Credit: Madison Wallace | Fener Reporter
Anyone with an Ohio email address has instant free access to this week’s Wall Street Journal.
The university’s undergraduate student government has launched its long-running initiative to provide free subscriptions to the WSJ to both students and faculty, hoping to alleviate some of the educational costs for students as well as keep them informed, said Bobby McAlpine, president at USG and a 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 College of Business and the Fisher College of Arts and Sciences,” McAlpine said. “When it comes to reading for classes in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times, many times we’ve heard that students have to pay for multi-month subscriptions for just one semester of classes.”
The The WSJ — founded in 1889 — is known for “chronicling the rise of global industries and economies” as well as covering business and financial news, 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 USG-run university cooperation with the NYT, which McAlpine said will still be intact.
“After seeing the New York Times subscription grow so much, we wanted to try to expand it,” McAlpine said. “The students really liked it and enjoyed being able to keep up with world events as well as using it in class.”
Hayden Price, a third-year biomedical sciences major and USG’s senior advisor for executive initiatives, said in an email that this is the largest initiative he has helped lead since taking on the role.
“Getting students access to reliable news sources is a top priority for this year’s USG administration,” Price said. “We hope that combining this with our current New York Times offering will allow students to receive high-quality news from a range of sources without any price barrier.”
McAlpine said she hopes students stay informed by engaging with unbiased news organizations, an action that helps students be more civic-minded and educated about current events.
“USG is very, very excited that we were able to provide this for the entire student body, just to ease a few levels of the financial burden,” McAlpine said. “We jumped through a lot of red tape at the university trying to land major contracts like this, and we couldn’t be happier that we were able to.”
Students can sign up for their free subscription hereusing their Ohio email addresses.
To sign up for the free NYT subscription, students can go to the publication web page.