Adblockers 'pose a threat to the survival' of news and music websites
Is adblocking good or evil? It's a discussion that has been rumbling on for some time, and it shows no signs of going away any time soon. The reasons for blocking ads are plentiful -- privacy, speed, annoyance -- but there's no getting away from the fact that ads mean revenue, and without this income many sites simply would not exist.
The latest figure to wade into the debate is the UK culture secretary John Whittingdale. While not going as far as calling for a ban on adblockers, he says that companies such as Adblock Plus are operating "modern-day protection rackets", ultimately threatening the existence of news sites.
Giving a speech at the Oxford Media Convention, Whittingdale compared the effect adblocking tools are having on web content to the effect of piracy on the music and film industries. "Quite simply -- if people don't pay in some way for content, then that content will eventually no longer exist. And that’s as true for the latest piece of journalism as it is for the new album from Muse".
Adblock Plus has already met with publishers and advertisers to try to work out ways to display ads in a way that will not be off-putting to users, but the culture secretary is looking at things from a different angle. His primary fear -- he posits -- is that adblocking could ultimately kill off music and news websites. He expressed interest in getting involved, saying that he would "consider what role there is for government".
Whittingdale also voiced concern that adblockers represent a serious threat to competition.
The problem is, they already exist. Big names like Adblock Plus might evolve to suit the mood of the moment but, ultimately, internet users will always be able to block any content they don’t want to see. We've already seen that people are generally reluctant to pay a subscription to access news, but the money to power these sites has to comes from somewhere. It's not an easy circle to square, but something has to give. It's just not clear that government intervention is the best plan of attack...
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