So I get ads are terrible, obviously. I run ad-blockers all the time. But people also get angry at paywalls. So that leaves me wondering, if not through ads or subscriptions, how is a news publisher supposed to sustain itself?

  • leoj@piefed.social
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    6 hours ago

    I mean isn’t there a world where we have unobtrusive adverts that are for products people actually want, and can sustain the reporting?

    I think people would use less ad blockers if the ads were not designed / placed in a way that feels almost seizure inducing at times.

    Unfortunately I think threads/twitter might be the future as a type of open source reporting, as everytime I hit a pay wall I turn around and leave.

    • CubitOom@infosec.pub
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      4 hours ago

      adverts that are for products people actually want

      This requires metadata fingerprinting which can be used to deanonymize people. And has been used as justification for intense surveillance of users and aggregation of user data. It is also profitable to sell this data to third party data brokers which inturn sell the data collected to other private entities which might have nefarious intent.

      Basically, this means that modern advertising on the internet is inherently wrong, even if it’s ads that people might actually like.

      • leoj@piefed.social
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        3 hours ago

        Maybe? I think they used to advertise based on the content and expected demographics for the website, which is an alternative method that doesn’t require invasive digital fingering.