We have all been subject to more “firewalls” from newspapers, media sites, TV stations and apps as they use paywalls to force us to subscribe, disable ad blockers and/or register to see content. It’s everywhere now: The Wall Street journal, the Atlantic, the New York Times, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, local TV stations, local newspapers all have shut me out.
Netflix is forcing commercials onto its users now. YouTube has been doing for a while.
And so, many of us will leave.
I don’t click on any links for any of these sites. They’ve taught me. I learned my lesson.
What they wanted to do was drive subscriptions, ad revenues and data capture for re-marketing. I’m sure it’s made some contribution to that. But I’m also sure that it annoys a portion of the audience, like me, who will leave and never return.
I suspect there is probably a way to provide these services and make money. I doubt it will be as lucrative as the “good old days” for many of these companies. My guess would be that we’ll see most of these companies disappear and be replaced by smaller companies that figure out how to make money.
I won’t miss many of them – because I already don’t.