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Comment by colincsl | Hacker News Reader

You still see ads, but they feel less invasive than the ones people who don't have a subscription see.

I find it unacceptable to have any advertisement mingling with content that I have paid for. I stopped reading magazines long ago (before the internet was a real alternative) for this reason. After a person purchases something, they should be treated like a customer, not treated like a product.

Would you rather pay considerably more to have an ad-free version? And even if yes, can you persuade their other readers to do that too?

Covering the cost of a service with both customer payment and advertising is... everywhere. Do you also get pissed off when you go to a cinema, watch TV, go to a sports game, ride on a bus, etc etc?

I would be willing to either pay more for something completely ad-free or not pay at all. I probably would not pay considerably more. How much extra does a magazine get from advertising? I thought it would be like three or four dollars per issue.

Yes I also do not enjoy being advertised to when watching a movie or TV, so I seldom do it. I don't feel as bad on the bus, although I'm not sure why, since as you point out it is roughly the same thing.

I think it's the presentation of ads in the midst of content VS ads off to the side on the bus.

Anyway, thank you for that thought-provoking comment.

Is the bus not the same as the magazine, where you can go "oh look an advert, I'll just ignore that and get back to my content"?

I'm not sure about the value of magazine adverts, I've never worked in print advertising,MIT even at a few dollars that would mean you have to pay double. If they raised prices to do that, the higher price could/would drive some people away, meaning you'd then have to pay more to cover those lost sales..

I've been thinking about this, and I believe there is a distinction since on the bus I am paying for the conveyance, not the content, so at no point do I ever consciously look at the advertising. For a magazine, I am consciously reading the content and they are putting advertising where my attention is directed. It doesn't help that the advertisements in a magazine pad it out so it looks like it has more content than it would otherwise.

I think that is more like a bus that detours to certain shops instead of taking shorter routes. You'd be paying for the conveyance and they would be abusing that by taking your time to gain themselves more money.

Actually, my first thought when I read the headline was, "Oh, then I might subscribe."

Unfortunately, they didn't really throw off the advertisers as I imagined. So no go.

Ads wormed their way into the cinema slowly, and under loud protest.

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