Honey, we kill free text content.

This morning I once again looked through the foreign press, followed the links and read the news. And once again I ran into the requirement to issue a paid subscription to Wired to continue reading. And then on another resource. And one more. The situation is the same everywhere: I’ve run out of free readings this month, although I don’t say that I am actively surfing and consume foreign news. So, I’m limited to the addmeto channel in a cart, and even a couple of sources when it comes to entertainment.

Three or four years ago, I constantly took a snack in the comments on the then-existing GT with adblock sectarians, who proudly broadcast “I will block everything I can. For nefig! They broadcast it loudly, with an expression (which was even visible in the printed text), and people like me, carefully asking “How will journalism live without advertisers?”, Were branded as “corrupt corporate employees” and answered that they say “quality content always come up on the love of the audience. "

So, after a little reflection on the situation this morning, I realized that that terrible day, the offensive of which I had been waiting for since 2013-2014, came: we, the users, killed free access to high-quality content. With my own hands. And everything is committed to the fact that we completely "shoot" the concept of free Internet. Fasting will be small, Friday and devoted exclusively to what we have done. With an open ending, by itself.

It all started about five years ago, when AdBlock and its various forks appeared on the market. Then he was the lot of a handful of "elite", but information about the wonderful blocker of vile advertising was spread through the fields and villages at the speed of a forest fire, and with the help of this same handful of elite. And at some point, the use of ad blockers became ubiquitous: any more or less flittered user started rolling AdBlock or its variations on all possible browsers and devices. The next step is blockers for mobile devices.

Then I worked in the editorial office of this resource and constantly rummaged around the network in search of information leads; even before taking up a newsreader position, I constantly had to read Arstechnica, Wired, WSJ, NYT and other and other publications.

The first bells began to appear in 2015, when a wave of requests from publishers went through the Internet to add their sites to the white-list AdBlock and allow the resource to exist. Adblock fans mocked and hooted, rejoiced at the advent of the new era of the Internet. “Look how strong we are! See how we bent them! Atu them! Ata! ”

And it’s just not necessary to start an old song about“ pop-up videos ”and other pop-ups that supposedly“ forced ”you to use the adblock with the maximum blocking settings. I remember very well these arguments, as well as the assurances that "no one will be poorer, but we are few." And then more than 50% of the audience of certain resources became you, by the way, including interesting ones (I won’t point the finger again). Because it is the logic of people who burn their own house, seeing a spider in the corner.



Someone more thoughtful said that advertising did not bring much money and publishers live on affiliate materials and company blogs (I won’t point a finger at a resource we all know). But actually it is not. We simply forced publishers to develop other, more native advertising formats instead of turning banners.

Then the WSW closed with a paywall (if memory serves me right), from domestic editions - the Republic. And all the rest followed. People who rejoice in the misfortunes of the “bloody publishers” that caused the ad blockers literally squeezed the genitals with themselves.

Here are some of the prices: ArsTech

Full-subscription - $ 50 / year (or trimmed for $ 25);
Wired - $ 10 / year ($ 35 / year extended version);
Wall Street Journal - $ 28.99 / month ($ 350 / year);
NYT is a basic subscription of $ 1 / week ($ 52 / year) or a full subscription of $ 4.38 / week ($ 227 / year);
The Guardian is begging for donations (screwed a message “support us” to each article with a payment button).

TechCrunch remained free, but now there’s absolutely nothing to read, the resource is dying.

Meduim, as an alternative platform, did not really take off. He does not have a core of the audience and all the traffic to popular materials is driven there by the authors themselves from their social networks. Steemit there too. The circle is closed.

This is a logical continuation of the "war of blockers" that publishers lost a few years ago. By the way, everyone who prays on AdBlock and others like them should know that at the height of the “fighting” these holy people (developers) were selling places in the white sheets of their offspring for indecently grandmothers. So that you understand that the coupons, the followers of the “pure web”, are normally cut on you.

Unnoticed it passed for those who are sitting in VK, FB and Picaba. For you, nothing has changed. And now I will have to either isolate myself from what is happening, or lay out a couple of hundred bucks a year for various subscriptions to keep up with the news. This is without taking into account the fact that you have to pay for the music (labels), and independent artists - to support them with direct donations or through Patreon, so that they do not bend from hunger.

And I am sure that all those who were in favor of the “Internet without banner advertising” will not buy a single subscription. Because fair use is not about such people, they are always dissatisfied with something and they always have someone else to blame. And I will have to pay and other consumers of high-quality content, which blog posts in FB and LiveJournal do not suit at least with their engagement and narrowness.

Gentlemen, we killed adult independent journalism, first of all technical, because it was technical publications that suffered most in the “war of blockers”. There are only underdogs and “student” projects like “my friend”, but even there people want to eat.

What can I say in conclusion? I'm going to still subscribe to Wired and look for a couple more sensible publications, because it's time to pay.

PS I invite all those who actively minus in the comments, why are you silent?