I don't agree with this.. I compare the internet ad situation with my TV (in the Netherlands): since about 10 years there's been more and more ads on many channels, and i stopped watching at ALL of them. There are currently about 5 channels (of 100+ total) that i still watch, the ones without ads.
And I don't mis much because in my opinion most of the commercial TV channels (the ones with ads) also have low quality content.
I really hope ad blocking keeps growing and all the bad quality content on the internet dies together with the ads.
And i'll hapily pay for quality internet content without ads, at an acceptible price, just as i buy apps in Apples appstore, and pay for Netflix.
If you don't feel the ads are worth the content in exchange, then you are free to stop consuming that content. Which is exactly what you're doing.
Again, there's no "bad" quality content. Bad to you might be what someone else is interested in. As for everything else, it's just an implementation problem with the market being flooded with shady advertisers and ad networks that operate without oversight. TV/radio/print all have much stricter standards which is sorely missing online.
Paying for content is a perfectly acceptable system, it's just not as scalable or equal to all users as ads are. Payments are a valid option, but it's far better to be a choice rather than the only option compared to advertising.
>> it's just not as scalable or equal to all users as ads are
I'm not sure that's true;
An example of what i would prefer instead, a Dutch newspaper http://vk.nl has about 70% free content (without registration or ads!), and 30% behind a paywall for paying customers.
This is a great example of how things should work in my opninion; check it out for free, and if you like it pay for the premium stuff.
If i'm not mistaken, there are games that do the same thing, like for example Team Fortress 2, which you can play for free, but then they have a shop for all kinds of extras.
Those sites are read by lots of people who do like that content. Content is content, you can't just engineer constant attention without actually producing anything.
The fact is that the mainstream does like reading what Buzzfeed puts out and are getting plenty of value/benefit from it - regardless of your subjective judgement of it.
And I don't mis much because in my opinion most of the commercial TV channels (the ones with ads) also have low quality content.
I really hope ad blocking keeps growing and all the bad quality content on the internet dies together with the ads.
And i'll hapily pay for quality internet content without ads, at an acceptible price, just as i buy apps in Apples appstore, and pay for Netflix.