“Germany’s Axel Springer has banned readers who use adblockers from its Bild tabloid website, stepping up a fight by publishers to stop online advertising revenues being eroded,” Harro ten Wolde reports for Reuters. “Springer said visitors to the website of Bild, Europe’s top-selling tabloid, will be asked to switch off the adblocker or pay a monthly fee of 2.99 euros ($3.40) to browse the website mostly ad-free.”
“‘Whoever does not switch off the adblocker or does not pay cannot see any content on Bild.de, as of now,’ the publisher said in a statement on Tuesday,” ten Wolde reports. “Some U.S.-based media owners including video-streaming company Hulu and the Washington Post have implemented similar measures but Springer’s is the most aggressive by a European newspaper publisher so far.”
“Internal monitoring showed that about 23 percent of Bild.de vistors use adblocking software,” ten Wolde reports. “Axel Springer’s move is the first such initiative by a major German publisher and could accelerate the war between people using ad blockers and media owners who rely on advertising revenue as part of their business model online.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Content-blockers for those who block ads. Wholly predictable.
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