People (at least used to) pay for magazines and newspapers, which have also been partially supported by ads forever. Perhaps a more sustainable balance would be only first-party ads (ie no individualized tracking) for paying subscribers?
I’m also delighted to say that subscribing to The Verge delivers a vastly improved ad experience — we’ll get rid of all the chumboxes and third-party programmatic ads, cut down the overall number of ad units, and only fill what’s left with high-quality ads directly sold by Vox Media. It will make the site faster, lighter, and more beautiful — more like the site we envisioned from the start, and something so many of you have asked us to deliver.[1]
I wrote a short post on the topic[0] but to save you a click here is the main point: We all complain about advertising that tracks users now. Imagine how valuable the data would be for paying customers now consider which micropayment provider you would trust with that information.
they felt less intrusive because they were
For all it's faults facebook advertising is similar, you can just scroll past an advert if it's of no interest. I don't find their adverts overly annoying.
Plain, non-animated non-creepy banner ads I've never minded. What I mind are:
1. Ads that are intrusive and distracting
2. Pages that have more ads than actual content
3. Ads that chase you around for two weeks trying to get you to buy something you just bought.
I mean yeah, if I'm paying $20/mo it had better be ad free. But if I'm paying $4/mo, having tasteful ads interspersed among the content is probably fine.