I like advertising.
No, really. Whenever I read a magazine or newspaper that doesn't
publish ads - Consumer Reports, for example - it always seems
like something important is missing.
I even like TV commercials and actually prefer watching shows and
movies on TV that have been recorded off broadcast rather than
commercial-less DVD or VHS versions. The commercial breaks provide
opportunity to grab a snack, pour a cup of tea or grab a beer, attend
to the inevitable effects of the tea or beer, stoke the wood stove,
stretch one's legs, etc. And, of course, you can just fast-forward
through the commercials if you want to stay put on the couch - not a
major hardship.
The often emotional disdain some folks express for advertising
bemuses me. Yes, ads can be irritating, but on the balance they are an
important element of recording and contributing to the evolution of
culture, as a peruse of any old magazine or newspaper makes obvious.
It's not surprising that Mad Men is a
perennial hit TV show.
I'm not in the least offended by "commercialism" - and, in fact,
value it as the engine that keeps our economy functioning and
prosperous.
Ads and the Internet
Recently Ars Technica's Ken Fisher set the proverbial cat among the
pigeons with an essay entitled
Why Ad Blocking Is Devastating to the Sites You Love, debunking the
frequently-cited misconception that if you're a site user who never
clicks on ads, then blocking them doesn't bite the publisher
financially.
In fact, most websites that are businesses (rather than someone's
hobby) depend on ad revenue that is calculated and paid on a per view
basis. Consequently, if you have an ad blocker enabled in your browser
and you load 10 pages on a site, you're consuming server and bandwidth
resources but disabling revenue compensation for the site's publisher -
and, by extension, its journalistic or blogger contributors.
"Imagine running a restaurant where 40% of the people who came and
ate didn't pay," says Fisher. "In a way, that's what ad blocking is
doing to us." This applies equally to Low End Mac and the other free
content Mac websites that I write for, although I can't cite precise
figures, as my involvement in these enterprises is purely journalistic
and not on the business side.
Ad Blocking Hurts Websites
However, I do know that since the recession set in 18 months ago or
so, several of my publishers - both online and in print media - have
been hurting badly (or worse - the daily newspaper in which I had a
regular column that had been my main livelihood gig for seven years
completely folded in 2008), and the increasing use of ad blocking in
browsers has to be contributing to the pain for the Web-based
publishers.*
I don't dispute that some advertising on websites can be intrusive
and obnoxious. I particularly dislike popup ads that obscure what
you're reading, clog bandwidth, and can be maddeningly persistent when
you try to dismiss them. I would suggest to advertisers that in terms
of effectiveness, less is often more. The admirably low-key and
completely inoffensive (at least IMHO) ad content on Google's search
engine is an excellent example, although there is also plenty of
display advertising with graphics content that I find perfectly
tolerable - and often usefully informative.
For exemplars of how advertising can be classy, intelligent,
tasteful, thoughtful, and entertaining, scanning through a copy of
The Atlantic Monthly magazine (I'm a longtime subscriber) is a
great place to look.
Ads Keep Content Free
Somebody has to pay for providing the content that makes visiting
these websites worthwhile, and in my estimation ads are an excellent
way of keeping content free. As Fisher observes, you may find ads
annoying, but imagine how annoying and frustrating it is for site
publishers to be obliged to reduce staff and slash benefits because a
greater proportion of readers is blocking the ads that are the site's
life blood.
I used to be quite satisfied using the ad-supported versions of
Qualcomm's classic Eudora email app and the Opera browser before the
development of Eudora was terminated (and the name handed off to
Mozilla.org for an Open Source "Eudora" clone of its Thunderbird email
client) and Opera went freeware.
I join Ken Fisher in appealing to readers: If you enjoy and value
what you derive from visiting our sites, please consider not blocking
the ads, because if this trend continues, a lot of these sites may not
be around anymore, - or at best content quality will suffer.
Not everyone agrees, of course, and for a contrarian perspective,
check out Is Ad Blocking the
Problem? by Canonical COO Matt Asay. I'm not convinced by Asay's
argument, but he's welcome to his point of view.
But then, as I said, I like advertising anyway.
* Publisher's note: We are working on an article explaining how to
whitelist Low End Mac while continuing to use ad blocking on sites
where you don't want to see ads. Until then, see
Safely Whitelist Your Favorite Sites and Opt Out of Tracking on Ars
Technica. dk
