4 ms·

People literally pay money to see relevant ads. Fashion magazines are basically vehicles for ads. Even if you exclude sponsored content, a major draw of such m

People literally pay money to see relevant ads. Fashion magazines are basically vehicles for ads. Even if you exclude sponsored content, a major draw of such magazines are the full page ads. Secondly, Mozilla are not blind to the idea that tracking won't go away completely.

tonyedgecombe 8y ago
People buy magazines for the content, the ads are an unfortunate side effect of the low cost.
- 52-6F-62 8y ago
  Not entirely. A lot of lifestyle magazine articles are essentially targeted ads for vetted products (see wedding or parenting magazines)—something that’s understood on both sides of the communication. It lends to serve the purpose of saving time for the reader in finding what they’re looking for to serve a specific need. The unwanted side effect of that is probably the little greedy voice inside people that causes them to buy even more things they don’t need because all of the dressing up made it sound appealing.
- dwighttk 8y ago
  Kinda depends on the magazine. Fashion mags it’s hard for me to even tell which is which.
- cocochanel 8y ago
  The content is essentially an ad.
  - tonyedgecombe 8y ago
    True, and I suspect if most of the consumers understood this they wouldn't pay anything for it.
    - Spivak 8y ago
      Why? It's basically soliciting vendors but with a broader scope. If you're redoing your kitchen you might actually want to buy a home magazine full of ads. It's Pinterest, which is hugely popular and I use all the time, but for print. Once I find roughly what I want I still have go through the vetting process to make sure it's not trash but it kinda solves the unknown unknown problem. However, ads when I'm not looking for them can just fuck right off.
      - terrycody 8y ago
        hey dear friend, sry for the hijacking thread here, do you have any new methods to bypass Medium paywall? your old method is not work anymore :(
- simonh 8y ago
  Back when I was a kid I used to spend at least as long reading the ads in the computer magazines as I did the articles. The same went for the gaming magazines (White Dwarf particularly). Even the ads that were just price lists were fascinating, just to see what was available to go and check out on the next trip to a games store.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    Back then ads had often a lot of information because they were often the only way to learn something about the product. Today’s ads have almost no information but are designed to arouse emotions.
  - lizknope 8y ago
    Computer Shopper magazine in the early 1990's was a huge magazine about 3cm thick printed on cheap paper (like a phone book if people still know what that is...) It was probably about 95% ads and just a few articles. Before comparison price sites it was a good way to find cheap prices for computer parts
- pluma 8y ago
  A few weeks ago I noticed someone on the same train reading what seemed like a fashion magazine. As far as I could tell every single page was just a high fashion ad for some luxury good. Just photography, a brand trademark and maybe some captions indicating the edition or product range. It wasn't a catalogue. There were no serial numbers or prices. Just glossy ads as "content" interrupted by regular ads. Trust me, there's a market for people who want ads.
  - maxxxxx 8y ago
    I think they just want to see what’s in fashion.
raxxorrax 8y ago
Then we just need an option to opt out of ads for anyone not wanting to pay. Be that through money or attention. I am all for it.
simiones 8y ago
Sure, but would even the most avid reader of fashion mags want to see fashion ads while looking over their mother's photos on Facebook? Or while browsing a programming sub-reddit? Because that's what 'relevant ads' usually means in contexts talking about ad blockers.
- lexicality 8y ago
  Yup. It's kinda shocking, but if you talk to non techncial people, they just accept adverts as a fact of life and actually quite like it when they show them things they like. Hell, those "You looked at this item on our website last week, do you still want it?" adverts are incredibly successful. My company does them and they have (for adverts) a fantastic conversion rate.

tonyedgecombe 8y ago

People buy magazines for the content, the ads are an unfortunate side effect of the low cost.

52-6F-62 8y ago
Not entirely. A lot of lifestyle magazine articles are essentially targeted ads for vetted products (see wedding or parenting magazines)—something that’s understood on both sides of the communication. It lends to serve the purpose of saving time for the reader in finding what they’re looking for to serve a specific need. The unwanted side effect of that is probably the little greedy voice inside people that causes them to buy even more things they don’t need because all of the dressing up made it sound appealing.
dwighttk 8y ago
Kinda depends on the magazine. Fashion mags it’s hard for me to even tell which is which.
cocochanel 8y ago
The content is essentially an ad.
- tonyedgecombe 8y ago
  True, and I suspect if most of the consumers understood this they wouldn't pay anything for it.
  - Spivak 8y ago
    Why? It's basically soliciting vendors but with a broader scope. If you're redoing your kitchen you might actually want to buy a home magazine full of ads. It's Pinterest, which is hugely popular and I use all the time, but for print. Once I find roughly what I want I still have go through the vetting process to make sure it's not trash but it kinda solves the unknown unknown problem. However, ads when I'm not looking for them can just fuck right off.
    - terrycody 8y ago
      hey dear friend, sry for the hijacking thread here, do you have any new methods to bypass Medium paywall? your old method is not work anymore :(
simonh 8y ago
Back when I was a kid I used to spend at least as long reading the ads in the computer magazines as I did the articles. The same went for the gaming magazines (White Dwarf particularly). Even the ads that were just price lists were fascinating, just to see what was available to go and check out on the next trip to a games store.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  Back then ads had often a lot of information because they were often the only way to learn something about the product. Today’s ads have almost no information but are designed to arouse emotions.
- lizknope 8y ago
  Computer Shopper magazine in the early 1990's was a huge magazine about 3cm thick printed on cheap paper (like a phone book if people still know what that is...) It was probably about 95% ads and just a few articles. Before comparison price sites it was a good way to find cheap prices for computer parts
pluma 8y ago
A few weeks ago I noticed someone on the same train reading what seemed like a fashion magazine. As far as I could tell every single page was just a high fashion ad for some luxury good. Just photography, a brand trademark and maybe some captions indicating the edition or product range. It wasn't a catalogue. There were no serial numbers or prices. Just glossy ads as "content" interrupted by regular ads. Trust me, there's a market for people who want ads.
- maxxxxx 8y ago
  I think they just want to see what’s in fashion.

raxxorrax 8y ago

Then we just need an option to opt out of ads for anyone not wanting to pay. Be that through money or attention. I am all for it.

simiones 8y ago

Sure, but would even the most avid reader of fashion mags want to see fashion ads while looking over their mother's photos on Facebook? Or while browsing a programming sub-reddit? Because that's what 'relevant ads' usually means in contexts talking about ad blockers.

lexicality 8y ago
Yup. It's kinda shocking, but if you talk to non techncial people, they just accept adverts as a fact of life and actually quite like it when they show them things they like. Hell, those "You looked at this item on our website last week, do you still want it?" adverts are incredibly successful. My company does them and they have (for adverts) a fantastic conversion rate.