Newspaper groups not doing themselves (or other sites) any favours.

[TheEdge]

It's not just the annoyance, slowdowns and bandwidth usage of adverts that is a problem.

Dodgy advertising networks are also a very common way of distributing viruses and other malware. Even reputable sites could have sold advertising space to a network who might have subsold it to someone who is up to no good.

Given the complexity of web browsers nowadays and the number of vulnerabilities that are constantly being discovered and patched, I don't consider browsing without a good Ad blocker to be safe, and my employer force installs uBlock Origin by GPO policy. Browsers such as Chrome and Firefox self-update by their own accord pretty silently, so this arms race might not be that apparent to most users.

I must admit I am shocked when I am forced to turn off adblock to access some sites how many seemingly legitmate sites trigger security alerts from Avira or Chrome.

 

[OuterDistant]

Intrusive adverts are a great business barometer, because when a website starts to use them, it means that either:

1. They're desperate, or
2. The business is run by idiots who hate their customers.

Either way: if you work for somebody who's website uses intrusive ads, it's time to start looking for a new job.

 

[northwichcat]

Intrusive adverts are a great business barometer, because when a website starts to use them, it means that either:

1. They're desperate, or
2. The business is run by idiots who hate their customers.

Either way: if you work for somebody who's website uses intrusive ads, it's time to start looking for a new job.

I remember when Flash was fashionable an academic wrote "A Flash intro on a website is as welcoming to your customers as asking visitors to walk barefooted over broken glass to enter your property."

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Don't know if it was a glitch but viewing some of the sites of the big newspapers on my mobile last night, there seemed to be extra adverts. If they keep that up i might need to consider installing an adblocker on my mobile

 

[northwichcat]

It's an interesting question as to just how useful are local rags. I stopped buying ours years ago as it was 60p (then) full of tickle-tackle like a 4yr old's lost her tooth. These days, if something happens you will find out about it; even without their websites. Council? If it involves you you will get a letter, if it's general they have newsheets which come through your door. MP? Facebook feed. Sport? Facebook feed. Major story? BBC, you've paid for that. Meanwhile, little Samantha's about to lose another tooth. Best pop down to the papershop for the latest breaking news......:roll:

My local paper today has managed to get a biggish story for the front page about a car dealership having suddenly being liquidated. However, the rest of the story is obviously just reports of what customers who have lost money/their cars have told them. They mention the business being VIP Car Sales Ltd but it doesn't look like they've thought to go on Companies House where they could find the owner is Mrs Rachel Gleave as well as giving her contact details, who they could then tried to contact for a comment. If they had tried but couldn't get hold of her then they should have put that in to the article to make it look like they've made a bit of an effort!

 

[MonsooN]

Agreed. It's a very sad situation. Local journalism and local news reporting is really an essential part of our society, but thanks largely to the Internet, almost no one is willing to pay for it any more, which leaves local newspapers basically stuck.

This is the reality. Readership and circulation figures (and therefore revenue) is massively down for local newspapers. I work for the company that owns the Newcastle Chronicle and when I started there in 2011, circulation was around 70,000 per day. It's now down to just 30,000 per day. This has impacted both revenue from people buying the paper and advertising.

The website, on the other hand, gets over 1 million unique users each month, so our audience is bigger than ever. This has to be converted into revenue to ensure the survival of the business, but it's a fine line between unobtrusive advertising and overload. I'd say the more ads that appear, the more desperate that local publisher is for revenue.

 

[Peter Mugridge]

The website, on the other hand, gets over 1 million unique users each month, so our audience is bigger than ever.

Do those figures take into account the widespread use of dynamic IP addresses?

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Opened up firebug the other day (a Firefox extension), opened up is network tab, then viewed a story on the website of my local paper (part of the NewsQuest group afaik), i was watching the data transfer value go up and up, it must have gotten up to around 30MB before i closed the window