There is no question that the popular news app, Pulse holds a lot of potential for publishers in building brand awareness. In a previous post, we talked about how the most apparent benefits included increased traffic and new audience engagement. But what about increasing revenue more directly?   

Pulse now connects users to local news sources and provides news, sports, food content and deals sourced from partners like CBS Local News, Groupon and more.

There is also a lot of buzz around a recent job posting from Pulse’s parent company, Alphonso Labs that makes it pretty clear there are plans to begin advertising. Yet, the focus lies not on standard ads but on growing a marketing model that suits mobile devices. Pulse is interested in empowering brands to show their content and is still committed to the high-quality content that engages its 13 million users to begin with.

This trajectory leaves little doubt that monetizing traffic for Pulse and its publishers is inevitable. And it looks like a pretty picture when you consider:

• Pulse logs a new download every 2 seconds.
• Pulse readers consume 200 million stories a month.
• The company is thinking contextually about what advertising should look like.
• Content is still king.

Rob O'Regan further builds the case for premium content, with two key points:

Successful online publishing models are showing that “. . . premium content is not just a paid content play – it’s a hopeful sign that good journalism can be sustained by brand advertising . . .” and

“. . . Successful and sustainable digital models, are likely to be a hybrid of high-value content, which drives subscription revenues and/or premium advertising, and low-value content, which drives scale. . .”

While Pulse may not be generating significant revenue for its publishers right now, it’s only a matter of time. Get yourself ready by experimenting with your own content model and adjusting your processes to accommodate more flexible and contemporary subscription models.