YES
Advertising complements most content and services online. Digital advertising powers the economy, helping to support valuable free content, high-quality journalism and social connections. It is the lifeblood of online media. Ad blocking is a critical matter for the industry and potentially an existential threat to publishers and to the advertising industry. Its impact differs from market to market, but small publishers are badly affected. Data-driven advertising makes up 81.5 per cent of the online revenues of traditional newspaper and magazine publishers. And it is estimated that over 90 per cent of revenues of digitally native publishers — those who do not have a legacy print business — stem from digital advertising.
Whether ad blocking is seen as ethical or not depends on the individual, while the legality of ad blocking as a practice is being challenged in some jurisdictions. Ad blocking is not a momentary trend and, unless we are talking about some sort of legal ban, we shouldn’t expect its use to diminish quickly. The industry recognizes that the end user should have the ultimate choice, but we need to ensure that there are opportunities for publishers and other providers of online services to leverage advertising as a revenue stream. Ultimately, this is how the web as we know it functions. The ad-supported business model ensures free access for billions of users worldwide to free press, information, knowledge, entertainment and services, consistent with what they now expect and demand. Research shows that if they suddenly had to pay for their favourite free news site or app, 92 per cent of users would stop using it.
There are many misconceptions about the threats of online advertising. The industry agrees that we need to address the reasons why users reject advertising and use ad blockers. That is why we have the Coalition for Better Ads, an industry-wide collective launched to develop and implement new global standards for online advertising that address consumer expectations. The coalition applies consumer insights as well as crossindustry expertise. Its “Better Ads Standards” were unveiled in March 2017 and are enforced on a browser level. Understanding the impact of these standards will inform our next steps. We are confident that, with the proper tools, we can improve user expe rience and provide more transparency and choice for web users.
“Digital advertising is the lifeblood of online media”