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How Wired Is Going to Handle Ad Blocking

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Re: How Wired Is Going to Handle Ad Blocking

#311

Post by dexterdog »

gedrap wrote: post #303
dexterdog wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But it's still micropayments. They've done a good job of aggregating some quality content, but it's still pay per click to the consumer.

I'd assume it's to keep things easier, especially for a young company. It should be much easier to deal with publishers when you can agree on cost per view, rather than trying to work out some magic subscriptions share model, like the one used by spotify, which is pretty hard to do and keep everyone happy. But that's just an educated guess :)

I agree, but that variable cost is what makes it variable to the consumer which is generally not accepted. Putting a hurdle before a click to view an article generally destroys your readership.

Re: How Wired Is Going to Handle Ad Blocking

#314

Post by Someone1234 »

ljoshua wrote: post #238

As has been mentioned elsewhere, my exact problem with this/Forbes approach/elsewhere is that there is no way that I want to suddenly start managing several new monthly subscriptions for all these outlets. I enjoy Wired, but the thought of adding yet another subscription to my monthly credit card statement is too great a cognitive load for me to want to make the jump. Also, if you were to subscribe to the dead tree v…

This is kind of how YouTube Red works.

Keep in mind that YT is more like a publisher than an actual content source. The content source is thousands of video producers from all over the world. These content sources normally rely on adverts to profit from their videos, but YT Red suppresses the adverts and instead pays the content producer from a pool of money (e.g. instead of getting 1c/view from the advertiser, they get 1c/view from YT Red).

PS - Yes, "YouTube Red" is a terrible name and sounds like a porn site.

Re: How Wired Is Going to Handle Ad Blocking

#316

Post by rpgmaker »

kdamken wrote: post #292

Oh wired, do you really think we care that much about reading your articles? Forbes did the same thing, and I just stopped reading forbes articles when they blocked me. It's a tough spot to be in for all these companies - they need to make money and stay in business, but it's rare that any of them are important enough to the average user to turn off blocking. There are simply too many sites out there to choose from.

I congratulate Forbes in successfully blocking my attempts to read their articles but I really don't care enough to turn off adblocking on their site. Usually there are other tabs with articles waiting for me to read and Forbes just saved me some reading time. That being said I'd probably turn off adblocking for Wired, I did with The Atlantic a while back but they started to autoplay their videos and I just blocked them again. How can that practice be in so widespread use in this day and age? Let's hope Wired isn't doing that.

Re: How Wired Is Going to Handle Ad Blocking

#317

Post by ohthehugemanate »

ohthehugemanate wrote: post #239

This is a nice post from an organization that clearly cares about their readers. That's hard to write, and the staff at Wired deserve credit for their effort to be open and direct with us. Unfortunately the post fails to address the reasons that their readers USE ad blockers. If only they had gone a LITTLE bit farther in this post and made specific promises in exchange for being whitelisted. Here are the promises tha…

This was important enough to me that I put it into a blog post: https://ohthehugemanatee.org/blog/2016/02/09/an-open-letter-...

Re: How Wired Is Going to Handle Ad Blocking

#318

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

michaelmrose wrote: post #151
x0x0 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Odd how working for exposure is decried when business owners want designers or devs to do it, but grand when we want publishers to do it.

Exposure IS worth something and a business that pays a team of analysts and other professionals ought to be in a position to access this and decide accordingly. In this case in the long run something is better than nothing which is what wired will end up with. As a publication they have little to offer to justify their high subscription cost and the portion of people interested in tech who don't use an ad blocker wil…

I'm enjoying the meta - ad machine that sometimes writes about ads writing about its own new ad plans.

So tech is having a shake-out at the moment - many assumptions being questioned, many business models being challenged, many unicorns revealed as dead horses.

Considering how little of genuine value these businesses contribute - including Wired - I'm not sure they're going to be heavily mourned if they disappear.

Is anyone really going to mind much if the Distraction Economy dies over the next few years?

Re: How Wired Is Going to Handle Ad Blocking

#319

Post by exodust »

GVIrish wrote: post #287
klunger wrote: post #188

I actually think this is a reasonable move for them. They have to pay their staff and keep the lights on while producing their content. It is kind of entitled and ridiculous for readers to think the party of well-researched, well-written and insightful content for free could go on forever. You either should have to pay for it explicitly with a subscription fee, or consent to ads and tracking. Yes, there is a lot of m…

I don't think most people have a problem with the concept of ads, after all, every print magazine is filled with them. The problem is that ads on the web have become more and more obnoxious as click through rates have fallen. The ads have dramatically reduced the usability of some sites, and that's before you get into the issue of tracking and malware. Had Wired curated their ads to ensure that no full screen popups…

>"the vast majority of people using ad blockers doesn't get enough value out of Wired.com to subscribe"

Agreed. Subscribing isn't an option for casual readers of any online publication. Nobody is spending hours on Wired every week! Whitelisting Wired isn't a great option either, so there's not really a good solution yet.

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