Web advertising only works to reveal preferences through privacy-invading ad tracking, and the public is showing less and less tolerance for such measures. New

Web advertising only works to reveal preferences through privacy-invading ad tracking, and the public is showing less and less tolerance for such measures. Newspapers were absolutely using classifieds to blow up their revenue, but advertising still played a big part and I doubt if classifieds were a significant source of revenue for most magazines (a quick look didn't turn up much in terms of figures). Web publishing developed the way that it did because publishers weren't particularly good at foreseeing what the end-game was going to look like, combined with a good bit of hubris about what actual effects the web would have on print publishing. The resultant excessive ad tracking occurred because publishers were trying to, ahem, "polish a turd".