News Corp (NYSE: NWS). CEO Rupert Murdoch wants to back an e-reader device to rival the Kindle. But the company has run into some delivery problems. Today, WSJ content was delivered to the device at about 7 a.m. instead of the usual time of 5 a.m. Here’s the message that went out to Kindle owners, who pay $9.99 a month for access to WSJ on the Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) device:

April 3, 2009

Thank you for subscribing to The Wall Street Journal.  Unfortunately,
today’s Kindle Edition has been delayed. We are working with the Wall
Street Journal to solve the problem and delivery your newspaper as soon as
possible. Thank you for your patience. The Amazon Kindle Team”

The WSJ currently ranks number two on Kindle’s list of 34 newspapers (in terms of demand), behind the the NYT, which charges $13.99 per month for a Kindle subscription. While the WSJ is $9.92, there is as of yet no package deal offered for subscribing to both the online and Kindle versions. Considering that a relatively small number of people get the WSJ via the Kindle versus in print or online, and most of those people probably subscribe to the WSJ online, the delivery problems are a minor inconvenience. But Murdoch has made it a priority to improve Dow Jones’ digital properties. Some subscribers complained of similar delays with the Kindle a week ago.

A DJ rep said that the delay was caused by a one-off glitch this morning; she says this is the first time the company has encountered this kind of problem.

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