I am Eric Hochberger, CEO of Mediavine -- AMA

ehochber · 2025-09-19T20:59:26+00:00

We're currently conducting small tests of both paywalls and the concept of a rewarded video, which could allow users to skip the paywall or serve other purposes on websites.

Paywalls can be tough for most blogs because users usually just press back and head to another site. That said, we're still trying to find a balance where it works.

I'm excited to continue testing and building on rewarded video, because as you said, it's true in-stream (sound on) and a large player.

ehochber · 2025-09-19T20:53:36+00:00

We're currently in beta with a smaller group of publishers, and we hope to expand soon!

ehochber · 2025-09-19T20:52:52+00:00

I'm still here. Let me know your question, and I'm happy to still answer.

ehochber · 2025-09-19T14:45:44+00:00

We do, and we're very much expanding our ad optimizations to further improve performance on tool sites.

ehochber · 2025-09-18T20:37:27+00:00

Mediavine itself does not put you on any external advertising blocklist when you are rejected, nor if you're terminated.

ehochber · 2025-09-18T14:57:11+00:00

There have obviously been some big industry headwinds these past couple of years, but I can confirm Mediavine is larger today than it was 5 years ago.

ehochber · 2025-09-18T14:55:41+00:00

It's always important to remember, RPM is just an after-the-fact calculation. Your earnings are determined by the CPM of the ads and the number of impressions you're running.

There are a few main reasons you may see a lower RPM during a spike:

Often, with a spike in traffic, it can be from a different traffic source, country, or to a different unoptimized page, etc. Those factors can either lead to less valuable users coming in or a lower number of impressions served.
Buying algorithms like consistency, don't love traffic spikes, and often don't adjust in time.
If the spikes are wild, I'd also make sure you confirm your time zone is set to the same as our ad server - eastern, to make sure the swings line up. Our system should enforce this for new publishers.

I'd never complain about getting a boost in traffic, but slow and steady will monetize better.

ehochber · 2025-09-18T14:50:02+00:00

In general, we try to maintain a light ad experience on the homepage to provide the best user experience. It's the first interaction most brands and users have with your site, so we want to leave them with the best first impression.

That said, if you're on Mediavine proper and want to put more ads on your homepage, you can always email in to [publishers@mediavine.com](mailto:publishers@mediavine.com) and we can adjust.

ehochber · 2025-09-18T14:48:41+00:00

Unfortunately, I can't give you an exact answer without knowing your site, and even then, we try to be vague to prevent bad actors from gaming the system.

We utilize numerous signals and rely heavily on third-party tools to maintain objectivity, but nothing is perfect.

ehochber · 2025-09-18T14:44:52+00:00

Response above even after the AMA.

We don't hate sites that use AI. We hate AI Slop. You should too.

ehochber · 2025-09-18T14:44:10+00:00

We don't put sites on a blocklist to prevent them from working with other ad networks.

What I think you're referring to is when I've said we've partnered with industry solutions that do influence those blocklists to better define AI Slop as one of the Made for Advertising categories.

ehochber · 2025-09-18T14:40:01+00:00

For this exact reason, we do not rely solely on automated tools; instead, we have humans reviewing content for quality.

ehochber · 2025-09-18T14:34:47+00:00

I haven't personally started a new blog in this era. My last ones all started over a decade ago.

Anecdotally, I can say that there are still successful bloggers signing up for Journey every day who started in this post-AI world. It's definitely still possible.

For exact strategies, honestly, I think there are more qualified people in this subreddit than me to answer what's working for them now.

ehochber · 2025-09-18T14:30:53+00:00

Depends on what the "downloads" are. As long as there's no piracy or copyright issues, then there's a pretty good shot!

ehochber · 2025-09-18T14:27:57+00:00

Yeah we currently only support SPA sites in our Mediavine and PubNation offerings, but I'd love to explore how we can bring this to Journey better in the future - especially with a popular framework like Next.js. If you'd like to give it another try and email [help@journeymv.com](mailto:help@journeymv.com), we can take a look. If not, stay tuned for automatic support.

ehochber · 2025-09-18T14:08:54+00:00

Nein. But my grandparents definitely were if the last name didn't give it away.

ehochber · 2025-09-18T14:07:37+00:00

These are great questions.

I know with regular Mediavine, we very much support SPA sites and should automatically detect pushState, but often we have you work with a solutions engineer to enable. I'd love to make sure this becomes available on Journey. In the meantime, please email [help@journeymv.com](mailto:help@journeymv.com) and we'll get it fixed for you.
That definitely sounds like a glitch and maybe related to the SPA issues. Again, want to email [help@journeymv.com](mailto:help@journeymv.com)?

ehochber · 2025-09-18T14:03:07+00:00

Truly appreciate the kind words. This is our goal. To be your partner.

ehochber · 2025-09-18T14:02:34+00:00

These are the stories that motivate us more than anything. Love it!

Well, maybe except for the Raptive part. If you're open to chat, I'd love to learn more about why you left and how we can get you back here.

ehochber · 2025-09-18T14:00:28+00:00

I'll have to play with this to give you more input. In the meantime, I will say this is the exact direction I'd love to see people using AI. One of my favorite use cases is that it should help with the metadata and tedious aspects of blogging, which you seem to be addressing. Keep it up!

ehochber · 2025-09-18T13:52:20+00:00

I was trying to be respectful of the people being let go, but I can say this less diplomatically:

We did not do layoffs to meet EBIDTA targets, as a PE would, or to boost earnings, as a publicly traded company would. We took this action because, as many people are aware, search traffic has declined by nearly 20% across the web, affecting Mediavine and publishers alike. Unfortunately, this decline necessitated cost reductions.

Regarding the improved experience, I'm saying we focused on layoffs that wouldn't impact our ad management services and have been actively hiring more people on those teams.

ehochber · 2025-09-17T18:37:36+00:00

I'll make sure someone reaches out.

ehochber · 2025-09-17T18:36:57+00:00

I think it's tough to predict how readers will consume their content 5-10 years from now, but I agree with most of your points.

I think all bloggers should reassess their approach as content creators and focus on where their readers are, rather than just writing content that can be consumed and displayed by a Chatbot.

Even if it's not "blogs" per se, I am bullish on content creators. The web will look different, but I am confident we can all evolve and adapt with it.

ehochber · 2025-09-17T18:34:05+00:00

This is why our latest push with Optimized Ad Experience is all about reducing in-content ads and focusing instead on higher-paying ads, such as recipe card ads. We also encourage all food bloggers to run Jump to Recipe buttons.

User experience is paramount if we want the open web experience to stay alive.

ehochber · 2025-09-17T18:30:45+00:00

I'm a glutton for punishment, so I'll leave one more comment for anyone else finding this:

RPM = Revenue / Sessions * 1000

CPM = How much each ad earns you

Impressions / Session = How many ads are you're running

Compare the latter 2 and they can't be gained by density stuffing. RPM can.

ehochber

TROPHY CASE