A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

Online publisher and intermediary revenue models

For a publisher, there are many options for generating revenue online based around adver‑

tising and fees for usage of online services. These options, particularly the first four in the 

list below, can also be reviewed by other types of business such as price comparison sites, 

Revenue models

Describe methods of 

generating income for an 

organisation.

Figure 2.11

Alternative perspectives on business models

B

B

B

A

Y

Y

A

Y

Y

B

A

Y

Y

Y

Y

1 Marketplace position

2 Revenue model

3 Commercial model

Manufacturer or

primary service

provider

Reseller/retailer

(intermediary)

Marketplace/exchange

(intermediary)

Media owner

or publisher

(intermediary)

Direct product

sales of

product or service

Subscription or

rental of

service

Commission-based

sales

(affiliate, auction,

marketplace)

Advertising

(banner ads,

sponsorship)

Fixed-price

sale

Brokered or

negotiated

deal

Auction or

spot

Key

Y 

=

 Yahoo!

A 

=

 Amazon

B 

=

 Book publisher

Not-for-profit

organisation

Sales of syndicated

content or services

(for media owner)

Product or service

bundling

Loyalty-based

pricing or

promotions

Supply chain

provider

or integrator

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Chapter 2  Marketplace analysis for e‑commerce

aggregators, social networks and destination sites which can also carry advertising to supple‑

ment revenue. The main types of online revenue model are:

1 

CPM display advertising on‑site. 

CPM

 stands for ‘ cost‑  per‑  thousand’ where M denotes 

‘mille’. This is the traditional method by which site owners charge a fee for advertising. 

The site owner charges advertisers a rate card price (for example £50 CPM) according to 

the number of times ads are served to site visitors. Ads may be served by the site own‑

er’s own ad server or more commonly through a  third‑  party ad network service such as 

DoubleClick (which is owned by Google).

2