Posted by: Matt Shanahan
Macworld recently posted a membership offer called Macworld Insider. By becoming an “insider”, the user of macworld.com has a “near” ad-free experience (i.e., some sponsorship still allowed). The ad-free experience takes the RPM of a member to essentially zero. The price of membership is $39.95/year (a.k.a., $39.95 ARPU).
Macworld Insider was most likely designed for fans of Macworld (i.e., their most loyal audience members). By understanding their fans’ loyalty profile and looking at RPMs, Macworld likely determined the upper end of revenue per unique and then created an offer to compete with that revenue stream. Membership is likely to create better lifetime value for each audience member and reduce volatility in revenue.