$10 ARPU at Texas Tribune

Posted by: Matt Shanahan

In an interview with Robert Andrews of paidContent last week, I reflected on findings from our research on publishing business models. One observation in particular piqued Robert’s interest. From client engagements as well as reading 10Q’s, S1’s, conference presentations, and press releases, it appears a $10 ARPU is a turning point for most digital-only business models into viability.

As I am always on the hunt for publically-available information to crunch, Ken Doctor’s recent blog posting on the Texas Tribune prompted me to dig deeper into the their business model. From a quick search through Google, a case example of the Texas Tribune was found in the summary report for “Seeking Sustainability: Nonprofit News Roundtable.” In the case example, John Thornton, chairman, Texas Tribune indicated the operating budget of $2.3M. From Ken’s post, the current number of uniques, 240,000. Therefore:

$2.3M/240,000 uniques = $9.58 ARPU (or about $10)

What is illustrative about the Texas Tribune case example is not having to rely on RPM to survive as a publisher. More on that thread in the next post.