The online gaming industry sells $2 billion a year in virtual goods through micro-transactions. What if they sold newspapers?

Today, CNN’s Fortune Magazine published an article titled, How Mafia Wars Will Fix Media By John Patrick Pullen which focused on the booming business of the free-2-play and micro-transaction based business model and how that model could be applied to traditional media like the New York Times.

Live Gamer provides the leading enterprise-grade monetization platform for games, social networks, toys, and digital entertainment properties.  Although this type of model has yet to be applied to the publishing industry – it is in fact a viable model that could revolutionize the way traditional newspapers and magazines do business if they offer exclusive content that is compelling to their viewer base.

Live Gamer sees average revenue per paying user across all its titles is $28 per month across 85+ million users worldwide. Comparatively  speaking an average of 15.7 million users per month visit the New York Times‘, where they have free access to content. Only fewer than 1 million readers choose to subscribe at $20 a month. Pullen suggests (and we couldn’t agree more) that publishers need to tap into this competitive nature and other game-like experiences that are driving the gaming industry today in order to encourage free-model readers to pay for content they find vital.

Read the entire article here

Contact us to learn how you can apply micro-transactions and the free-to-play business model to your IP