McGraw-Hill Education cuts "pay-for-performance" deal with Western Governors University

In what's certainly one of the first deals of its kind, McGraw-Hill Education has agreed to a "pay-for-performance" compensation deal with Western Governors University in Salt Lake City, which specializes in online courses. The publisher will sell its eBooks and adaptive learning tools to the University for a discounted flat fee; in turn, the University will pay McGraw-Hill a premium for each student who uses the materials and passes the course. The press release doesn't say how deeply McGraw-Hill is discounting its eBooks and tools, but given that the publisher is selling directly to the University instead of through a third-party bookstore operator, it has quite a bit of room to discount without affecting its profit margins.