Not that I have a problem with this exactly, whenever ad dollars start falling many large scale web properties have historically reacted in one of two ways: (1) providing a premium based subscription service that forces quality content or users will drop (the opposite of this being a free, impression driven, quality agnostic model by splitting up articles over multiple pages) or (2) increasing ad costs which in turn results in more scrutiny in what is being fed through the ad engine.
These aren't the gold standards, please keep that in mind; it's purely anecdotal. I threw this observation over at a friend who is a professional affiliate marketer and has his own four man firm, he concurs. When ad dollars drop, media companies fight for whatever revenue normalcy they can get by improving quality in the two areas users have the biggest impact: interacting with your media and interacting with the ads supporting said media.
Not that I have a problem with this exactly, whenever ad dollars start falling many large scale web properties have historically reacted in one of two ways: (1) providing a premium based subscription service that forces quality content or users will drop (the opposite of this being a free, impression driven, quality agnostic model by splitting up articles over multiple pages) or (2) increasing ad costs which in turn results in more scrutiny in what is being fed through the ad engine.
These aren't the gold standards, please keep that in mind; it's purely anecdotal. I threw this observation over at a friend who is a professional affiliate marketer and has his own four man firm, he concurs. When ad dollars drop, media companies fight for whatever revenue normalcy they can get by improving quality in the two areas users have the biggest impact: interacting with your media and interacting with the ads supporting said media.
I'm optimistic here.