Online Publishers versus Ad-blockers

By Yanwen Zhang

Photo source: pixabay by coyot

In 2015, 198 million people globally are blocking ads, up 41 percent from 2014. [1]

Photo source: flicker “The need to be...SAFE!”by ohsoshy14

In 2015, 47% of American readers of news websites and 39% of British

readers are using ad-blocking software, grew 48% from last year,

to 45 million users. [1] [2]

USwith ad-blocking no ad-blocking

UKwith ad-blocking no ad-blocking

Adblock Plus, one of the leading software providers, claims 300 million downloads of its app. [2]

Photo source: flicker “Alliance for Audited Media launches its ad blocker detection service”by Sofiya Karki

As mobile adoption increases, ad-blocking software follow.

In mid-September 2015, Apple released iOS 9, its first operating system to have built-in ad-blocking support for Safari.

A few days later, Tumblr Founder Marco Arment released his $3 ad-blocking app called Peace, which quickly shot to the #1 paid app in the iTunes Store.[3]

Photo source: flicker “Apple CEO Tim Cook” by Mike Deerkoski

Adobe says that $21.8 billion in global ad

revenue will be blocked this year.[1]

Photo source: taken by author December, 2017

with ads being one of the most important financial resources for lots of websites, ad-blockers are causing problems to them.

“Imagine running a restaurant where 40

percent of the people who came and ate didn’t pay. In a way, that’s what

ad blocking is doing to us.”

-- Ken Fisher, writer for technology news website Ars Technica [3]

Photo source: flicker “AIOLI-AD-18” by flashlive2007

Google lost more than $6-billion (USD) in revenue forgone from advertising blocked by Google

Search users. [2]

Photo source: flicker “google” by Neon Tommy

Digital publishers are estimated to stand to lose over $27 billion by 2020, accounting for Almost 10% of Total Digital Advertising Market.[4]

Photo source: flicker “Sad” by Tabi Aziri

“Rather than scream “theft!” at ad-block users, we need to find a new approach that takes into account their fears while

ensuring that online media still has a place in business.”[3]

-- Danny Crichton, TechCrunch contributor

Photo source: flicker “Self reflection” by Stuart Beard

White list

700 publishers and bloggers have been paying to get whitelisted on Eyeo.[1]

Photo source: flicker “good list” by agings

However, Adblock users can also tailor the app to exclude even the compliant, whitelisted advertising.[2]

Ask users to pay for ad-free sites

Google lunched Contributor program that proposes ad-free navigation

in exchange for a fee ranging from $1 to $3 per month.[5]

Photo source: pixabay by firmbee

Dating site OkCupid shows a message to ad-blocking users complimenting their tech savvy and asking for a reasonable one-time donation of $5. [3]

Photo source: flicker “Online Banking” by Daniel Foster

The Guardian prompts donations with the message: “We notice that you’ve got an ad-blocker switched on. Perhaps you’d like to support the Guardian another way?”[3]

Photo source: flicker “The War Logs” by Alex "BuckyBit" Covic

Having acceptable ads

• Adblock Plus introduced the idea of Acceptable Ads. Users can now opt to block all ads or allow the less-ugly, less-intrusive ones through.[3]

Photo source: flicker “Hand Shake” by oddbjornbrenden

“We built all these sites and places for ads to live but rather than give real thought to the landscaping, we just let everything grow. Now, everyone is saying, ‘we’ve got kind of a mess here so we need to take a step back and clean things up.’”[6]

-- Jay Lauf, Quartz publisher

Photo source: flicker “Clean Up” by Resha Juhari

IAB introduced its “LEAN” program, to produce ads that are lighter, less resource intensive and, hopefully, less likely to encourage people to install ad blockers.[6]

Photo taken by author.

Content marketing has been proved helpful to engage readers with ads by only showing the ads that people want to consume.[7]

Photo source: flicker “Customer Insights Are Key for More Persuasive Marketing Content” by Keith Hoffart

Other ways to profit

Some non-profit news sites rely heavily on grants and donations; ad revenue is a smaller piece of the pie. Fashion bloggers need readers to buy their Etsy wares and click on their affiliate links. Ads are important, yes, but they aren’t everything.[3]

Photo source: flicker “art at priceless_012” by SharonaGott

Works cited

[1] Rosenwald, Michael. “The digital media industry needs to react to ad blockers … or else”. Columbian Journalism Review,

September/October 2015. N.p. Web. Accessed 16 February, 2017.

[2] Mortished, Carl. "Readers have declared war on publishers." Globe & Mail , 3 July 2015, p. B2. Web. Accessed 16 Feb, 2017.

[3] Richmond, Holly. “Is Ad-blocking Theft?”. Digital Ethics, 13 October, 2015, N.p. Web. Accessed 16 Feb, 2017.

[4] Baker, Sam. “Worldwide Digital Advertising 2016-2020”. Juniper Research, 11 May, 2016, N.p. Web. Accessed 16 Feb, 2017.

[5] Filloux, Frederic. “The Rise of AdBlock Reveals A Serious Problem in the Advertising Ecosystem”. Monday Note, 8 December, 2014, N.p.

Web. Accessed 17 Feb, 2017.

[6] Bilton, Ricardo. “2016 Year in Preview: Ad blocking will force the industry to put the user experience first”. Digiday, 8 December, 2015, N.p.

Web. Accessed 16 Feb, 2017.

[7] Matrix, Sidneyeve. “Module 02: Promotional Media”. 24 January, 2017. Presentation.