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Report: Ad blocking costs publishers $10B, equal to 250,000 jobs, 2 aircraft carriers
Washington Examiner ^ | 11/13/15 | Paul Bedard

Posted on 11/14/2015 8:56:14 AM PST by markomalley

The nation's struggling media, which has gone all-in on digital platforms to stay alive, now faces a new threat, easy-to-install ad blockers that are expected to wipe out $20 billion in all online publishing revenue next year, according to a sobering new report.

The group PageFair, which helps publishers fight ad blocking, revealed that the use of the money-robbing practice has surged in the United States and globally, and is expected to cost U.S. online publishers and advertising-supported sites $10.7 billion in "unrealized revenue" this year. That is expected to double next year.

The report said that ad blocking is hitting all online firms, not just news publishers, and is used especially by online gamers.

It drew the attention Thursday of media analyst Alan D. Mutter who warned that the media is threatened by the explosion of ad blocking. "When blocking technology prevents an ad from being served, however, the publisher doesn't get paid. And that is turning into a growing problem for everyone from gaming-site operators to the news media," he wrote in his blog "Reflections of a Newsosaur."

Unlike other online publishers, the media's business is costly and employs tens of thousands, and as a result needs to see advertising grow. A Brookings Institution report issued this week found that the media has moved to digital platforms because printing on paper is not sustainable. a

In the U.S., ad blocking usage grew 48 percent in the past year to 45 million users. In Europe it increased 82 percent.

PageFair said that the search engine Google Chrome is the main driver of ad blocking because it is easiest to install. Globally, some 126 million Google Chrome users block ads. For Firefox it's 48 million and for Safari it's 9 million.

And worse for internet publishers, the use of ad blocking is just starting to take off on mobile devices, where the most growth in usage is occurring.

"The bottom line: As technology develops and ad blocking plug-ins become more commonplace, the growth in ad blocking usage will receive yet another catalyst. This has the potential to challenge the viability of the web as a platform for the distribution of free ad-supported content," said PageFair.


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: adblocker; ads; commerce; sds
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To: Marie

Ghostery is a strong component of repelling kr@p.


21 posted on 11/14/2015 9:19:21 AM PST by Paladin2 (my non-desktop devices are no longer allowed to try to fix speling and punctuation, nor my gran-mah.)
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To: markomalley

Every marketing bimbo thinks shoving ads into people’s faces is what “everyone does!”, so they do it too.

No original thought in the marketing industry. None.

They think annoying their customers is they way to get money from them. The advertising sales bimbos claim all kinds of numbers like, “10 million people per month will see your ad! Isn’t that awesome!”

What they don’t say is, “We jam 10 millions ads out there every month and no one reads them, half are blocked, and it just pisses the reader off who will come to hate your company and products, but pay us $1 million to do that, mmmkay?”


22 posted on 11/14/2015 9:19:27 AM PST by CodeToad (Stupid kills, but not nearly enough!)
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Please Donate!

23 posted on 11/14/2015 9:21:51 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: markomalley

I only want an ad blocker that still allows me to see ads with mixed-raced couples and white guys watching sports with black friends.


24 posted on 11/14/2015 9:25:09 AM PST by BlueStateRightist (Government is best which governs least.)
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To: markomalley
I've been using Adblock Plus and Self-Destructing cookies and suffer neither ads nor cookies. And, advertisers, nice try on guilting us into suffering through your idiotic ads. As stated in #10 above, junk mail ain't free to send and I get that useless crap in my mailbox on a daily basis--and I also make it a point to ignore businesses who have that dreck sent to me.

AdBlock Plus

and

Self-destructing cookies [firefox only, sorry].

Both programs free--forever.

25 posted on 11/14/2015 9:28:42 AM PST by W. (I piss fire and acid upon the militant muslims as they pray to their baby-raping god!)
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To: Marie

I find Disconnect works well on PaleMoon.


26 posted on 11/14/2015 9:29:48 AM PST by FourPeas ("Maladjusted and wigging out is no way to go through life, son." -hg)
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To: markomalley

I hate takeover ads. One of the best new ad blockers is UBLOCK ORIGIN. It also allows you to push a button and turn it off on sites you like and want to get the ad revenue.


27 posted on 11/14/2015 9:30:54 AM PST by r_barton
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To: volunbeer

Howsabout they just let the CONTENT load first??
There would be plenty of time to read the ads, too—they would be hard to miss alongside the text THAT YOU WANT TO READ.
I will not stare at a blank page ( under a headline or so) waiting for unknown crap too slow to download—and just leave.


28 posted on 11/14/2015 9:32:20 AM PST by Flintlock (Our soapbox is gone, the ballot box stolen--we're left with the bullet box now.)
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To: markomalley

If unblocking the ads would gain our military two aircraft carriers, I’d do it. But the most this would gain is jobs for 250,000 liberal reporters ranting against our military and weakening our economy and social values.


29 posted on 11/14/2015 9:33:44 AM PST by DannyTN
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To: BuffaloJack

I was going to add that ... it happened to 0regon. The state raised the tax on the ‘wealthy’ - thought they would get X, planned on getting X pre-spent what they thought they’d get but only got Y ...


30 posted on 11/14/2015 9:35:01 AM PST by SkyDancer ("Nobody Said I Was Perfect But Yet Here I Am")
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To: markomalley

Without ad-blocking, some sites are positively inaccessible, so the advertisers are wasting their money after all, whether their ads are blocked or not. This is especially so with platforms such as Kindle, that don’t have the capacity to display most of the active content on a typical website.

If you watch a hockey game on TV you can see the boards covered with advertising, yet because it’s static you take it in without being unduly annoyed; you hardly notice it, but the message is still there, and you’re taking it in as you watch the action on the ice. Imagine if they rigged things so those ads would jump out at you; covering your screen and making it impossible to watch the game!


31 posted on 11/14/2015 9:35:49 AM PST by Mr Ramsbotham (Laws against sodomy are honored in the breech.)
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To: SamAdams76

It does not help that many websites are converting to ‘mobile friendly’ and have horrible scripting. On many of them, menues and links do not work.

Some have pop-ups that cover much of the screen and the X to close it is unreachable.

Luckily, with the Web, there are always alternative websites.


32 posted on 11/14/2015 9:36:42 AM PST by TomGuy
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To: Marie

I went to Microsoft.com and searched on “ad-tracking”. I found part of their website that explained how to initiate “Tracking Protection” and I went to the link. I downloaded several recommended “add-ons” and when I now look at “Manage Add-ons” the “Tracking Protection” part of the list comes up.

Immediately, Drudgereport went from a near 1 minute load to next to zero. I’m convinced...


33 posted on 11/14/2015 9:38:25 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: markomalley

Who actually clicks on the ads?


34 posted on 11/14/2015 9:39:40 AM PST by Eaker (The Bates Motel. Ain't nuthin' like it.)
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To: markomalley

A lot of these obnoxious ads have been infected with malware and have infected people’s computers that visit those sites. One way I fight this, besides an ad blocker, is to not use Flash. Flash always seems to have new vulnerabilities discovered. Don’t use Flash if you don’t have to. That will also stop a lot of ads.


35 posted on 11/14/2015 9:40:29 AM PST by r_barton
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To: Marie

I need to mention that I’d loaded Ad Blocker and its plus version before but I really didn’t see any improvement. I now think it was because of the “ad tracking” crap that was getting loaded first. I might go back and see if that helps too.


36 posted on 11/14/2015 9:40:36 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: Flintlock

Problem with that is when the ads do load they shift the content around and you cant read it because its moving.


37 posted on 11/14/2015 9:41:56 AM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: markomalley

Overdoing something is a great way to wear out its welcome. Surely there must still be people in the world who can figure out how to make advertising enticing, rather than annoying? A crowd of virtual hucksters shouting in my face is likely to move me to “fie on it all.”


38 posted on 11/14/2015 9:42:14 AM PST by HiTech RedNeck (Embrace the Lion of Judah and He will roar for you and teach you to roar too. See my page.)
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To: DannyTN

Its like crying the country doesnt have 250,000 more lawyers.


39 posted on 11/14/2015 9:42:41 AM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: SamAdams76

I completely agree with you. I also don’t mind non-intrusive ads. I do mind ads that hide the text I am reading, or worse, crash my browser (I mean you Daily Caller and Lucianne).

I installed AdBlockerPlus after reading about it here on FreeRepublic. It has very much improved the experience of surfing the web.


40 posted on 11/14/2015 9:44:33 AM PST by jeannineinsd
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