At OX9, two sharp minds in B2B media sat down to talk subscriptions — and what emerged wasn’t a how-to on paywalls. It was a fundamentally different way of thinking about audience value.
Jason Wesalo, Chief Digital Officer at Arc Network, and Kurt Hawks, Chief Digital & Revenue Officer at BridgeTower Media, have both built subscription businesses from the ground up inside complex, multi-brand organizations. Their takeaway? Publishers who are winning on subscriptions have stopped asking “what do we put behind the gate?” and started asking “what are we actually selling?”
Here’s what stood out.
1. Subscribers aren’t paying for content. They’re paying for access.
This is the key mindset shift.
Arc doesn’t just gate articles — it builds what Jason calls “premium only assets”: data-rich journalism, subscriber-exclusive webinars, and specialized tools designed specifically for paid members. BridgeTower does something similar in its construction brands, offering early-access intelligence on public works projects coming up for bid. Neither is simply locking the door on content that used to be free.
The implication for pricing is significant. Jason’s team deliberately prices high — and then builds the product to justify it. “It’s not enough just to put a gate on a site,” he noted. “We really are trying to think through what is that core value proposition to a user.”
Tactical note: Before you set a price, define the premium tier. What can a subscriber access that a registered user can’t? The answer shapes everything downstream — from conversion messaging to churn prevention.
2. Dynamic pricing isn’t just for e-commerce.
BridgeTower moved away from the old “start low, raise at renewal” model about two years ago. In its place: individualized pricing at renewal time, driven by engagement data, tenure, and historical rate increases.
Each subscriber gets a unique price. Each price is measured against a control group to detect where renewals start to drop off. Kurt described it plainly: “You kind of want to break it a little bit to see the ceiling.”
It’s a more sophisticated approach than most media companies are running — and it’s already generating results. The data tells you who values your content enough to pay more, and who needs a softer touch to stay.
Tactical note: If you’re on a flat renewal model, engagement data is your most underused lever. Frequency, content consumption patterns, and recency are strong proxies for willingness to pay.
3. Your paywall is a first-party data engine. Treat it like one.
When BridgeTower gates content, it isn’t just generating subscription revenue. It’s building unified audience profiles in Omeda: anonymous visitor to email address to firmographic data to behavioral data. That unified profile powers everything — email, display, social retargeting, even open-web advertising via first-party cookie. Kurt put it directly: “That only works when you have that first party data, and there’s a lot of value behind content metering or paywalls to get that first party data.”
For Arc, the logged-in subscriber model has strengthened the marketing services pitch. Sales reps can now sit down with advertisers and describe a 100% known, logged-in audience — not an anonymous impression pool. That’s a fundamentally more valuable conversation.
Tactical note: If your sales team is still pitching bulk impressions, the subscription model gives them a better story. Equip them to tell it. Learn more in our guide: Prove the Value: A Media Leader’s Guide to Increasing Ad Revenue
4. Subscriptions, events, and advertising aren’t competing. They’re cycling.
Both Jason and Kurt described a flywheel model where revenue streams reinforce each other rather than cannibalize.
Kurt framed it this way: At BridgeTower, the subscribers are the advertisers. They’re the event sponsors. They’re the event attendees. The audience is the same people — just engaged at different moments and monetized in different ways. “It’s really about serving that audience, understanding that audience, and then monetizing that audience in different ways.”
Arc is building toward the same model. Freemium registration creates the funnel. Paid subscriptions and event attendance are the twin high-value outcomes at the bottom. The site isn’t the destination — it’s the on-ramp.
This matters for how you think about metrics, too. Jason’s team has been having internal conversations about whether page views and unique visitors are even the right measures anymore. When your goal is a subscribed, highly engaged audience, visitor frequency and depth of engagement start to matter more than raw traffic.
5. There’s no perfect time to start — but you do need a clear definition of success.
Both panelists ended with advice for publishers still on the fence when it comes to revamping your gating strategy.
Jason’s case for starting: the barrier to entry is lower than most people think. Setting up gates, building a subscription page, designing the UX — none of it is technically prohibitive. Arc crossed $1 million in paid subscription revenue within 12 months on a single, relatively small brand. “If you’re on the fence,” he said, “there’s no reason not to try it.”
Kurt’s counterweight: be deliberate. Know your assets, know your strategy, and know how you’re going to measure success before you flip the switch. “There’s no shortage of data,” he noted, “and we can all get lost in the data that’s thrown off on the digital side.” Define the metrics that matter to your business model — and be honest about whether you’re hitting them.
Together, it’s a pretty clean framework: low barrier to launch, high importance of intentionality. Start, but don’t wing it.
Jason and Kurt shared that subscription revenue isn’t a bolt-on. It’s a reflection of how well you understand your audience — what they value, how they engage, and what they’ll pay to access. Get that right, and the revenue follows.
This post was inspired by the OX9 panel: “Pricing, Paywalls, and Access: The Formula for High-Value Subscription Revenue,” featuring Jason Wesalo (Arc Network) and Kurt Hawks (BridgeTower Media).
