Ad Blockers are Bad Business
by Miki Saxon
The other day I was thinking about downloading an ad blocker, because the auto-video ads make me crazy.
But even before I read about the Washington Post blocking people with ad blockers from reading their articles I decided not to.
Why?
Because I know that, as the saying goes, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.
“Many people already receive our journalism for free online, with digital advertising paying only a portion of the cost. Without income via subscriptions or advertising, we are unable to deliver the journalism that people coming to our site expect from us.”
No one expects to get a free car or for even Amazon to give away books, but when it comes to content on the Internet they cry, “That’s different!”
Copyrights are suddenly meaningless and any effort to generate revenue to pay for the creative talent, technology and other expenses required pollutes the experience.
Even sites that are built on user-generated content have expenses.
You deserve to be paid for your work and your company deserves to generate revenue to pay you — and so do they.
Think about that before you block ads or complain about pay walls.
Flickr image credit: Jason Tester
