Save a Journalist, View an Ad

Do Internet ads bother you? I really have never been bothered by them, and kind of block them out when viewing Web sites. (Ask me if I've seen any banner ads lately, because I won't remember.) I employ a basic pop-up blocker, but that's about it.

Looks like I am an outlier. Adblock Plus is one of the most downloaded Firebox ad-ons, with 700,000 new users a week, according to a recent article in Slate. However, is blocking out ads, which pay for the free content you view, really fair?

The article notes that Adblock is considering finding a way to make the tool more ethical:

Adblock Plus would keep track of which sites you visit often. If it notices that you're spending a lot of time at certain sites on which you're blocking ads, the software would give you guilt-inducing prompt, like, "The owner of this Web site indicated that no annoying advertising is being used here. Would you like to disable Adblock Plus on Example.com to support it?" If the user clicks "Yes," she begins to see ads on that site—but, importantly, she'll be able to shut down all the ads on the site at any moment if they begin to annoy her.

You'd think anyone in the media business, which thrives mostly on ads, might have a vested interest in keeping ads in your face -- but we're as guilty as anyone at ignoring them. My friend Rebecca Trela, managing editor of Print Solutions magazine, is an Adblock devotee and called my attention to the Adblock proposal. She says it is a nice idea, but doesn't think it would work. She e-mailed this alternative plan:

However, what if we newsers adopted something from another model?—and here, I’m borrowing liberally from the Alexandria Planning Dept., which allows real estate developers to either 1) provide a certain percentage of “affordable-rate” housing per development project, or 2) contribute funds to the city so that it can purchase and administer the affordable housing; effectively “buying out” of the program. Btw, buying out is more popular by a *very wide* margin.

What would you pay to “buy out” of ads? I use Adblock Plus at home (sadly, not at work) and it is GLORIOUS. However, if one morning while I was reading Slate (which I do every day, as you can tell), ABP prompted me with a popup that said, “You visit this site XX% of your internet visits, but you block the ads that support it. Click here to donate to the site…”

…I definitely would. Not sure if that’s only because I feel the deep pain of everyone in the news game.

Nothing wrong with feeling the deep pain of everyone in the news game! I myself would rather just view the ads, but maybe that isn't enough anyway, and Rebecca's plan might work.

Or, what about my plan: Let's hold a click-a-thon, where everyone must click on as many ads as possible for one day, pleasing advertisers and somehow providing media revenue somewhere. Maybe there's a starving journalist who will be able to afford a can of green beans.