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posted by janrinok on Wednesday August 12 2015, @05:26PM   Printer-friendly
from the that's-what-I-wanted-to-hear dept.

Ads have long been part of the trade-off for users of the free Web, but the rise of ad blockers is making it increasingly difficult for publishers to sustain that ad-supported model.

That's according to a report published Monday by Adobe Systems and PageFair, a startup focused on assessing the cost of ad blocking and proposing alternatives.

While PageFair clearly has a vested interest in illustrating the negative effects of ad blocking, the findings of its study with Adobe are difficult to ignore. Most notably, ad blocking will cost publishers nearly $22 billion this year, it reported.

Ad blocking has grown by 41% globally in the last 12 months, the report found, amounting now to about 198 million active ad-block users around the world.

There were some interesting geographical differences highlighted in the report, too. For instance, in the U.S., ad blocking grew by 48% over the preceding 12 months to reach 45 million active users by June. In the U.K., ad blocking grew by 82% to reach 12 million active users over that same time frame.

Meanwhile, those numbers will surely be on the rise on the mobile side, Adobe noted in a blog post, given that Apple's iOS 9 will likely include ad-blocking features in Safari by default while Adblock Plus is already available in limited beta for Android.

Ad blocking represents "a major, growing problem for both digital publishers and marketers," said Greg Sterling, vice president for strategy and insights with the Local Search Association.

In many ways, the ad-blocking phenomenon is a response to security and privacy fears that have arisen in the culture at large and a rejection of the state of advertising on the PC internet, Sterling said.


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  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday August 13 2015, @02:50PM

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Thursday August 13 2015, @02:50PM (#222323) Homepage Journal

    Yes, they have a right to display ads. I have the right to block or ignore them. As someone else said, it's MY computer. You can choose to deliver content to me, or not.

    It's not "oh noes we're losing money" it's "Oh, no, we're not getting filthy rich." Web sites are dirt cheap to build and maintain, I'm paying fifty bucks a YEAR for mine. I display no ads, although there are links to buy my hardcover and paperback books; for fifty bucks a year I need no ads.

    The real reason their revenue is dropping is that twenty years ago, few of us were on the internet, so it was a lousy advertising medium, and ad agencies made money hand over fist from the limited number of outlets. How many radio and TV stations does your city have? Newspapers? Now there are millions of web pages to advertise on.

    It's supply and demand. When the internet grew, the number of competing ad vehicles exploded, which caused the price of advertising to plummet.

    Note that the Illinois Times has no problem publishing at no cost to its readers; it's completely supported by advertising, even its print edition, which is also free. Also note that their online ads are no more obtrusive than their print ads. I'd never have installed an ad blocker or flashblock if the idiots that run newspapers had insisted that advertisers get nothing but a static picture.

    When I'm reading the paper and listening to the radio I do NOT want an ad blaring out audibly, let alone ten different ads screaming from ten tabs I have other newspapers open in. I do NOT want to be distracted by movement when I'm trying to read.

    The advertisers brought this on themselves. There's no one to blame but the advertisers themselves, and the outlets that allow it.

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