Linked – Former Chartbeat CEO Tony Haile wants to save the media industry by blocking ads
This isn’t the worst idea I’ve ever heard:
Once upon a time, newspaper publishers had a great business model: Selling ads that were printed on paper, then selling bundles of those papers to consumers.
Obviously, things have changed — most news is a free commodity and, according to former Chartbeat CEO Tony Haile, some 236 million people around the world block ads online. But Haile’s new company, Scroll, is aimed at fixing both problems at once: He wants to create what amounts to a subscription ad-blocking service, endorsed by the world’s biggest publishers.
Part of the problem with the way things work right now is that every site out there wants to either block you if you’re blocking ads, or go to a subscription model for those who want to not have to deal with ads.
But who wants to keep track of all those subscriptions and get nickeled and died by 100 different websites? No thanks. But a one time payment for ad-free access to hundreds of news and media sites? Maybe…
