5 ms·

Yep, they're having to beg for funding already. Now imagine if ad revenues went away completely?

sp332 9y ago
They will have to come up with a real business model. You know, where they give people something they want in exchange for money. The horror! You know advertising is just another business model right? They have to give advertisers something they want in exchange for money. If they can't do that, they don't get money. It's a business.
- ucaetano 9y ago
  > They will have to come up with a real business model. You know, where they give people something they want in exchange for money. Trading attention for content is a real business model. Just because you don't like doesn't make it any less real. Not only that, the article we're discussing is ad-funded. The reason you're reading it without paying for it is because it is ad-funded.
  - sp332 9y ago
    They either make something people (readers or advertisers or sponsors) will pay for or they go out of business. That's pretty normal. I don't see why it's so important to prop up a specific failing business model. There are other models.
    - ucaetano 9y ago
      > I don't see why it's so important to prop up a specific failing business model. Nobody is propping up anything, let them do business. Don't like the ads? Don't access those websites. Vote with your wallet and clicks.
      - hueving 9y ago
        >Nobody is propping up anything, let them do business. Did you read TFA? Browser vendors that allow invasive tracking are propping up this model.
  - andrewjl 9y ago
    It's a real business model until we deploy widespread ML-driven ad-blocking across all browsers. Not such a real business model after that. And it WILL happen, because ads are a nuisance and the browser market is competitive. You're fighting with gravity at this point.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
ghettoimp 9y ago
Even if all browsers implemented this kind of tracking prevention, why would ad revenues go away completely? Surely they can still show you somewhat targeted ads based on things like the contents of the page you're on, your IP address, etc. While that's not as accurate as your entire browsing history since forever, it's not nothing.
ninkendo 9y ago
99% of online "news" organizations would go under. We'd be left with a few publishers that can survive on their readers paying to view the content. Similar to how TV/radio/book publishers/movies/etc already work. There would no longer be profit incentive to promote clickbait articles that just re-link to the original source, no more fake news sites being spread around social media, no more perverse incentives to get as many clicks as possible without providing any actual value of your own. Bring it on! I want this future so much.

They will have to come up with a real business model. You know, where they give people something they want in exchange for money. The horror! You know advertising is just another business model right? They have to give advertisers something they want in exchange for money. If they can't do that, they don't get money. It's a business.

ucaetano 9y ago
> They will have to come up with a real business model. You know, where they give people something they want in exchange for money. Trading attention for content is a real business model. Just because you don't like doesn't make it any less real. Not only that, the article we're discussing is ad-funded. The reason you're reading it without paying for it is because it is ad-funded.
- sp332 9y ago
  They either make something people (readers or advertisers or sponsors) will pay for or they go out of business. That's pretty normal. I don't see why it's so important to prop up a specific failing business model. There are other models.
  - ucaetano 9y ago
    > I don't see why it's so important to prop up a specific failing business model. Nobody is propping up anything, let them do business. Don't like the ads? Don't access those websites. Vote with your wallet and clicks.
    - hueving 9y ago
      >Nobody is propping up anything, let them do business. Did you read TFA? Browser vendors that allow invasive tracking are propping up this model.
- andrewjl 9y ago
  It's a real business model until we deploy widespread ML-driven ad-blocking across all browsers. Not such a real business model after that. And it WILL happen, because ads are a nuisance and the browser market is competitive. You're fighting with gravity at this point.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

ghettoimp 9y ago

Even if all browsers implemented this kind of tracking prevention, why would ad revenues go away completely? Surely they can still show you somewhat targeted ads based on things like the contents of the page you're on, your IP address, etc. While that's not as accurate as your entire browsing history since forever, it's not nothing.

ninkendo 9y ago

99% of online "news" organizations would go under. We'd be left with a few publishers that can survive on their readers paying to view the content. Similar to how TV/radio/book publishers/movies/etc already work. There would no longer be profit incentive to promote clickbait articles that just re-link to the original source, no more fake news sites being spread around social media, no more perverse incentives to get as many clicks as possible without providing any actual value of your own. Bring it on! I want this future so much.