Who says we don't want to pay? Some of the most profitable newspapers are completely paywalled and have been for years. Someone wants to pay. I will gladly pay myself.

But I will only pay for ad-free content.

Remember how cable TV used to have that promise? You pay for your TV and you don't have ads. I remember that back in the day my cable provider would broadcast listings of today's programming schedule to cover up ads in the source transmission. Now you pay and you watch ads. If we do pay for websites, I hope we pay for no ads.