MediaPass Claims Pay Wall Model Outperforms Ad Models

Publishers debating whether their online content should be paid or free are asking the wrong question, according to Matt Mitchell, CEO of MediaPass, which offers a pay wall solution directed toward small- and medium-size publishers (as well as individual bloggers). Instead, publishers should pursue both options and determine what content and which sections of their site should be behind a pay wall, and which should remain freely accessible.

And while determining which content should be paid (original content, data, etc.) and which should be free (content that’s accessible elsewhere), even content that’s also available on other sites can drive a higher “e-CPM” behind a pay wall than typical online ad CPMs, according to Mitchell. (The MediaPass Web site claims publishers can “make up to 20x more revenue than ads alone.”)

“For some sites, the appropriate mix might be 99 percent paid,” says Mitchell. “Something like a celebrity gossip site might be less than 2 percent paid. Any content that is original is a contender but even content they can get anywhere else still makes more money on a CPM basis than most ads, although you do face potential cannibalization or diminished traffic.”

MediaPass lets publishers create an account in which they can gate all of their site or just a particular area. The process is similar to creating a Google AdSense account, which Mitchell says is intentional. “We want to make this as easy as Google AdSense,” he adds.

And like the Google service, once a publisher signs up, a unique snippet of Javascript is applied to designated pages. Publishers can upload their logo into MediaPass and choose from three pricing options (currently one month, three months or six months at subscription fees of $6, $10 and $24 respectively) or set their own price. MediaPass—which takes a 35 percent commission on content sales—must approve all code and content before the pay wall goes live.

MediaPass has currently signed up “several hundred publishers” and while he won’t reveal specifics, Mitchell says partners are generating $20 CPMs on the low end and $100 or higher at the upper end of the spectrum.

Game Classroom, an online destination for worksheets, educational games and homework help for students in kindergarten through sixth grade, is a MediaPass client. The site is using MediaPass to monetize more than 600 worksheets via one-year memberships charging $4.95 per month. “We decided to monetize our worksheets since they are all 100 percent original content created by our team of experienced educators,” says Game Classroom COO Josh Solt. “From an e-CPM standpoint, MediaPass has significantly outperformed other alternatives including Google AdSense.  Furthermore, we expect our numbers to continue to grow as the school year approaches.”

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