Complete Story
01/19/2017
Mossberg: Lousy ads are ruining the online experience
Last Saturday, as the New England Patriots were sloppily beating the Houston Texans 34-16 in a playoff game, I wanted to look at the highlight video of a play using the NFL app on my iPad. To watch that 14-second clip, I had to suffer through a 30-second ad for something so irrelevant to me that I can’t even recall what it was.
The length and content of that video ad Saturday was, in my view, way out of proportion to the length and value of the clip itself. And that’s just one small example of why the advertising-supported model online is broken — and is threatening the whole online content experience with it.
Yes, I understand that ads pay for subscription-free online content. In fact, I’m well aware that advertising revenue funds my own pay, and that this column and the podcast that follows it will feature ads. I also understand that my particular NFL example involves exclusive in-game, on-demand highlights that were especially valuable. So, I am emphatically not against advertising per se.
Criticism is mounting
Two weeks ago, Ev Williams, CEO of the respected journalism site Medium, denounced the current ad-driven model, laid off the company’s traditional ad sales team and pledged to find something better.
He said: “ ... it’s clear that the broken system is ad-driven media on the internet. It simply doesn’t serve people. In fact, it’s not designed to. The vast majority of articles, videos, and other ‘content’ we all consume on a daily basis is paid for — directly or indirectly — by corporations who are funding it in order to advance their goals. And it is measured, amplified and rewarded based on its ability to do that. Period. As a result, we get ... well, what we get. And it’s getting worse.”
