DropCap — Get paid by the 97% who will never subscribe
Monetization for news & editorial

Your paywall is a light switch.
Make it a dial.

97% of your readers will never pay $9.99 a month. DropCap gets you paid by them anyway — micro-unlocks, day passes, prepaid wallets, and an engagement economy that turns attention into advertiser revenue.

Book a 30-minute walkthrough See the 15-minute integration
yourpaper.com/business/…
Business
The quiet reshuffle inside the port authority
Keep reading wallet · 340 coins
Unlock this article 25¢
Day pass · 24 hours $1.50
Subscribe · all access monthly
Or earn coins by engaging → no card
access granted · instantly
97%
of readers never convert to a monthly plan

A reader hits your content, sees “Subscribe for $9.99/month,” and almost all of them leave. You paid to acquire that visitor and monetized nothing. Your stack only knows how to sell one thing.

What happens when a reader hits the wall

Four steps, about half a second, no card form unless they want one.

Reader opens an article

One line of code on your page does the rest.

DropCap recognizes them

One login across your titles brings their wallet balance and what they already own.

The reader picks a path

Unlock, day pass, subscribe, spend wallet coins, earn coins, or open a courtesy link.

Access opens, and the money is logged

The article opens with the right ad experience attached, and every cent or coin lands in a ledger you can audit later.

Six ways to get paid from one reader

Every mode runs on the same engine, the same wallet, the same books. Turn on the ones that fit your audience.

Pay-per-article
Reader gets
Unlocks one piece
Publisher benefit
Impulse-priced — a 25¢ decision takes two seconds, a $10/mo decision gets postponed forever
Day passes
Reader gets
24 hours of full access
Publisher benefit
Captures event-driven traffic spikes that would otherwise bounce
Recurring subscriptions
Reader gets
All-access or a scoped bundle
Publisher benefit
Your loyal core, billed automatically — you keep what already works
Prepaid coin wallet
Reader gets
A balance to spend frictionlessly
Publisher benefit
Kills checkout friction: after one top-up every unlock is one tap, no card form
Engagement → coupons
Reader gets
Earn coins by engaging, redeem for real discount codes
Publisher benefit
Monetizes readers who will never pay cash — the advertiser pays instead
Courtesy share links
Reader gets
Time-limited access shared by a subscriber
Publisher benefit
Expiring and open-capped, so sharing is top-of-funnel, not leakage

One reader. Six paths to revenue. The reader chooses; you capture value either way.

What each capability earns you

Explore all six in detail →
Higher approval rates

Stripe, Razorpay and PayU, routed by the reader's country.

One login, every title

A reader's wallet and purchases follow them across your sites.

Fewer ads for payers

Ad tiers with real caps, attached to any product you sell.

Know who is paying

Revenue split by mode, plus segments you can act on.

Attention into commerce

Non-payers earn coins and redeem codes — the advertiser pays.

Nothing goes unsold

House content fills empty slots; every creative needs your approval.

Web-side ad reduction is best-effort: a reader controls their own browser, so DropCap reduces ads rather than guaranteeing their absence. Enforced ad-free applies to mobile apps and video.

Revenue by mode, in one view

The dashboard splits earnings by how the money arrived, so you can see which path is growing and where a price is wrong. Coupon reveals and redemptions sit next to cash revenue, because both are revenue.

See what publishers get →
Paying readers
ARPU
Redemption rate
Unlocks, passes & subscriptions Coupon-funded (advertiser pays)
For advertisers

Real editorial. Real consent. Real attribution.

Native placements inside publisher-approved editorial — and leads you only pay for when the reader actually said yes.

For advertisers →
Recommended for you
A quieter commute, engineered
Northline Audio · Sponsored
Publisher-approved slot Verified clicks only
Native placements inside real editorial.

Four formats — native cards, press releases, advertorials and classifieds — served in publisher-approved slots on real news sites, not made-for-advertising pages.

Pay for leads only when the reader consented.

A reader taps, and if they are signed in and said yes, their details reach the brand directly. You are billed on qualified leads — nothing else.

Closed-loop attribution.

Unique personal coupon codes redeem at your actual store, so you can trace engagement all the way to a completed purchase.

Balances that always add up

No phantom coins, no half-finished purchases.

A ledger you can audit

You can always answer “where did this coin go?”

Nobody gets double-charged

A retried payment or a double-tapped button is still one purchase.

Your data stays yours

One publisher’s readers, products and revenue never touch another’s.

Access that can’t be faked

Every access decision is cryptographically signed — no shared links, no spoofing.

Run your own numbers

What is your paywall turning away?

Move the sliders to match your site. Everything below is arithmetic on your inputs, not a benchmark.

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{{ calcConv }}%
${{ calcUnlockPrice }}
${{ calcPassPrice }}
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${{ calcCpm }}
A light ad tier shows a reader 2–3 ads a week, not one per article. Take-rates held at 0.8% unlock, 0.15% pass, 12% ad-funded.
Estimated from your inputs
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per month · {{ calcYear }} annualised
Single unlocks · {{ calcUnlockers }} readers {{ calcRUnlock }}
Day passes · {{ calcPassers }} readers {{ calcRPass }}
Ad-funded access · {{ calcAdReaders }} readers {{ calcRAd }}
{{ calcPerK }}
per 1,000 blocked readers
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readers hitting the wall monthly
Book a walkthrough of these numbers
Getting started

Three steps, no replatform

Most publishers are taking their first payment the same day they start.

Read the install guide →

Live on your site this afternoon

One line goes below the article. Your team keeps its CMS, its templates and its ad stack — nothing gets rebuilt.

See how it installs →
1
Add one line to your article template
No migration, no replatform.
2
Set your prices in the dashboard
Unlocks, passes, bundles — change them any time.
3
Start with one section, then widen
Watch which path readers choose before you roll out.

Let’s find the money your paywall is turning away.

Thirty minutes with your traffic and your prices. You’ll leave with a number.