Why Apple will save the web

Nilay Patel, editor-in-chief at tech publication The Verge, laments that the web will die a slow death. He is rightly alarmed. Publishers, barely adapting from print to online, could see their world turn upside down again.

The harbinger of death is Apple. While its new mobile operating system, iOS 9, made headlines for some snazzy new features, the most significant change may be this: Safari’s mobile browser can now block web ads via third-party extensions.

Commentators declared this a bad development for everyone except Apple. It’s a dick move designed to starve Google of its primary revenue source, they say, adding that ad blocking deprives publishers of ad income they deserve. And without that source of income, there’s no way they can continue crafting content. Publishers would starve en masse, causing a massive die-off.

Consumers, in the end, will be worse off.

Except they won’t.

Consider this stat: 200 million people have been using ad blocking software even before Apple launched its mobile ad blocking feature. That’s seven percent of the global internet population.

This is a big deal. It shows consumers are willing to fork out a small sum of money to block pesky banner ads, protect their privacy, and get faster page loads.

Ad blockers are meeting a real need; ads aren’t. Ads are being ignored by consumers, and they degrade user experience. This explains why clickthrough rates are in the single digits.

In the past, displaying ugly, irrelevant ads was accepted as a compromise by readers in order to sustain their favorite publishers. Not anymore. They finally have a means of stopping the bullshit, and they’re acting on it. Publishers should stop accusing consumers of being selfish for blocking ads.

So yes, online media businesses will take a hit in the short run should ad blocker adoption rise further. But this trimming of the fat is welcomed. After all, the publishing landscape has been infected by a striking sameness: the news breaks, and everyone scrambles to cover it within 10 minutes in almost the same way. If ad blocking causes some of these news outlets to go bust, hooray. I won’t miss them.

It’s not all doom

However, for media that are truly meeting needs, there is hope. When the dust settles, publications will either be mass or niche. Both are viable ways to build sustainable media.

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