What's a reader worth a year? That's a metric worth tracking

The average revenue per user (ARPU) is a metric that more and more publishers are, or should be, using to analyze their  plans for online publishing and to determine how much money they need to make a profit from readership, according to a post in paidContent.  Matt Shanahan of Scout Analytics says his clients are aiming at a target figure of $10 a year. Revenue becomes as important (or more important) as audience.

However, Shanahan freely admits that ARPU can vary wildly: for example, the comparison of People magazine making $409 revenue/visitor/year in 2009 and Demand Media getting only $1.60.