Wired and Forbes have started to shut readers out using ad block. They’ve taken the Dikembe Mutombo approach to ad free readers.
Wired gave me 60 seconds of reading time before throwing a splash page in front of me asking to turn off my ad block or to pay $1/mo for an ad free reading experience.
Forbes was a bit more extreme. They showed the standard landing page but wouldn’t let me continue on to the site with my ad block still turned on.
I’ve never seen this happen until today but I’m not surprised. I’d be shocked if I didn’t run across more websites this week deploying the same barriers.
Yeah, I’ve seen the Forbes one for quite a while now, maybe they have been rolling it out gradually per user. But I haven’t seen this on Wired before. I do like that Forbes gives you an “ad light” version if you turn it off.
I get publisher’s point on this, they have to make money obviously, but I have also decided to bail on reading an article MANY times based on the site complaining about my ad blocker so they may have to decide between accepting significantly fewer readers or accepting more readers with ad-block. Not a good situation for them either way. The better approach would be to find new ways to monetize.
I like your approach. I don’t read Forbes often so maybe it’s been in place and I just haven’t seen it.