Sounds large enough that they could manage and sell their own ads, cutting Google out of the loop, while ending up with advertisers more in line with their cont

Sounds large enough that they could manage and sell their own ads, cutting Google out of the loop, while ending up with advertisers more in line with their content. Handling one's own ads is a significant burden for smaller sites so paying the Google tax is worthwhile but larger sites like ZeroHedge likely can do better than with Google if they put in the effort. In many ways Google is coasting on inertia and relying on most sites not bothering with building and managing their own ad content.