French Media Takes a Stance on Adblockers - No ads, no Access

[engine]

Members of the French media and publishers are taking a stance against ad blocking, and are joined by music streaming business, Deezer. The message the combined publishers and media organisations are sending out is that users with adblockers will lose access unless the adblockers are removed or disabled.

It's not the first time this has happened as many publishers already stop access, but, in this instance, it's a coalition of publishers which adds strength to the message.

In addition to the websites of numerous French print, radio and television websites, the action was also joined by Deezer, a France-based music streaming service.

In announcing its plans in 2015 to organise joint actions against adblocker software, the Geste trade association said the objective was to remind users that “content and services aren’t free” and emphasise “the indispensible character of advertising as a source of financing”. French Media Takes a Stance on Adblockers - No ads, no Access [theguardian.com]

If you rely on advertising as a revenue stream you have to sympathise. If you're an advertiser you're also going to want this stance to succeed.

Ad blocking is a popular way of eliminating the most annoying of ad-supported sites. In addition, it helps protect users from bad actors that want to deliver a malware payload through their ads.

[tangor]

Expect that in this instance they're not paying anyone, so it's not really a business model at all.

As far as the user is concerned the web is free. That's how it has been sold since day one. Even governments remark on the free information, etc. etc. etc.

WE, of course, know the internet is NOT free. You have to pay to access it. You have specialty devices (computer, tablet, phone, etc) and webmaster pay their operational costs and, in some cases, pay for the content they offer and it is the lure of the free stuff that gets folks to "your" site.

And all that worked for a while. Then ads came (and the attendant greed and bac actors ... popups and other things whhich got worse and worse) all dancing jiggly and (with the migration to phones and wifi and capped data plans) then the real cost, and who pays for it, became known: the user. Paying for the ads plastered on free content and all that attached tracking, invasion and other stuff.

The user's perception of the "business model" is they pay to access the web to get free stuff. In their eyes they have been betrayed.

All the above if devil's advocate. If you want folks to pay for your stuff, set your site up that way ... or go out and get your own advertisers and serve their content from YOUR system(s) and factor in a cost of operation to achieve a net profit for displaying ads.

What we have now is pie in the sky were publishers and users both get nothing ... one is paying to get it (user) and the other is seeing less income for the real estate made available and must reap the attached bad smell of abusive and sometimes offensive ads which rarely match site content, the tracking and still don't get paid.

The worst offenders are the big media, and it doesn't matter which country of origin.

[go4it]

I'm curious: If adblocker looks for Java script, then what would happen if you wrapped your content areas in java, and just before the beginning place a message that the content will not show if you are using adblocker... would that work?

[IanCP]

@Tangor, Seems like we are on the same page about how this will play out in the end.

Sorry to be a "wet dish cloth" - this will end badly for many concerned.

Badly for some, irrelevant for me as long as my meagre site costs are covered.

Businesses founded on sites wholly dependent upon advertising/affiliate revenue may eventually fail in the near future.

Gee - back to the future circa 2002. May we prosper!

[blend27]

She is right. There was a tool given to Ad Agencies and Data Brokers. It was called "Do Not Track". Everyone from that side of the isle simply ignored it or made sure to fight the war against it. Well, there you have it, and eat it too....

Rise of Ad Blocking Is the Ad Industry's Fault, Says Outgoing FTC Commissioner.

"We've seen an incredible rise in consumers taking matters into their own hands, which is precisely what I said would happen back then," Ms. Brill said.

[adage.com...]