I worked as a contract developer for a media website for a couple years. The top priority in all decisions was how to increase ad revenue, since this was their

I worked as a contract developer for a media website for a couple years. The top priority in all decisions was how to increase ad revenue, since this was their one source of income. If it was a choice of usability or page views taking precedence, page views would win every time. Increasing page views (like mentioned in this article) was important to them because: 1) It increased the opportunity to feed ads and generate more revenue. 2) Part of their valuation was based on page views, so if they were to be acquired, this improved their valuation. Unfortunately, usability was often hurt in the process.