“Five months after Apple opened the door to ad blocking on mobile devices, news site Wired has become the latest publication to charge users who have installed ad-blocking tools,” Michele Chandler reports for Investor’s Business Daily. “‘We know that you come to our site primarily to read our content, but it’s important to be clear that advertising is how we keep Wired going: paying the writers, editors, designers, engineers and all the other staff that works so hard to create the stories you read and watch here,’ Wired told its readers in a post Monday.”
“The publication said 20% of its traffic comes from readers who are blocking its website ads,” Chandler reports. “Wired said visitors using ad blockers will not have full access to articles on its site. It said website visitors can either agree to see ads or pay about $1 a week for an ad-free subscription.”
MacDailyNews Take: $52 per year. For one site. Gee, wonder why website subscriptions generally don’t work?
“Some media firms, including Comcast-owned NBC, will not allow people using ad blockers to watch videos on their sites, while the Guardian and the Washington Post are among media sites that are prodding people who use ad blockers to pay for subscriptions instead,” Chandler reports. “About 16% of the U.S. online population blocked Web ads during Q2 2015, according to a September study by Adobe Systems and PageFair. Ad blocking could could cost publishers $41.4 billion globally this year, up from $21.8 billion in 2015, according to that study.”
There Is No ‘Free’ Internet
“‘There has never been any such thing as free Internet, as users either pay with cash or with personal data/advertising. The experience is ‘free,’ but a return is earned by using users’ personal data to generate advertising or relevant marketing,’ wrote Edison Investment Research analyst Richard Windsor in an industry note Tuesday. ‘The problem is that virtually all users who are paying with personal data do not realize that they are actually paying for the services that they consume,'” Chandler reports. “Windsor added that ‘with many legitimate and well-respected businesses that depend on advertising to make a living, the threat of having it cut off could put them out of business.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Due in part to ad blocking, the shift to mobile (where ads pay less than on the desktop), some decline in desktop CPMs, and other circumstances, we’ve been forced run some advertising that we’d rather not have to resort to running in order to pay the bills.
We hope this is a temporary situation as we’re working on various means to get back to fewer, more tech-oriented ads. To everyone who’s been patronizing our advertisers to support MacDailyNews, a BIG THANK YOU as it’s helping us toward our goal of minimizing ads!
SEE ALSO:
Axel Springer bans adblock users from accessing Bild website – October 13, 2015
Apple pulls ‘Been Choice’ ad-blocker, other apps from App Store citing security concerns – October 9, 2015
Rush Limbaugh: What Apple’s iOS 9 ad-blockers will unleash – September 21, 2015
iOS 9 adblocker apps top App Store charts; developer pulls ‘Peace’ adblocker – September 18, 2015
iOS 9 content blocking will transform the mobile Web – August 24, 2015
Apple’s iOS 9 ad blocking threatens Google’s lifeblood – August 14, 2015
Apple News shows that Apple wants to bolster and profit from ads, not eliminate them – July 10, 2015