Funding the internet

Yesterday,  Monday 7th November, the Guardian ran a full-page feature about the way that the internet is largely financed by advertisers, derived from one of its round table discussions, in this case involving 13 media and advertising types, mostly young, and including three women. A full page feature produced under the auspices of AppNexus, for whom see reference 1.

The majority idea, although there was some dissent, seemed to be that having the internet funded by advertisers was a good thing and that the way forward was to do what was necessary to keep it that way. I count myself among the dissenters: we need to find some better way to raise the taxes to fund this fantastic service. I am reminded of a discussion, more than ten years ago now, with a real Paddy barman in a plastic Paddy bar in a little parade on the northern side of the Oxford Road in Reading, in which he forcefully advanced the view that the likes of google should be run by not-for-profits, if not by government or something like UNESCO.

The feature included the statement, made without evidence, but one which I agree with, that advertising tended to pull content down, to put downward pressure on the quality of content.

Facebook is a good vehicle for advertisers because Facebook shares lots of stuff with advertisers to enable them to better target their advertisements. They have a very interactive relationship with some advertisers, sharing lots of information about how advertisements are going down.

Much discussion of the merits of clever targeting.

• Best suited to niche products. Broad brush advertising did better with broad brush audiences
• If it got too clever, it was apt to irritate the people at whom it was directed, which was probably counterproductive
• Upcoming regulation was likely to restrict access to user data, to make targeting more difficult
• Creative people not that keen on targeting as it interfered with their creative juices.

A page’s worth, less a bit more than half given over to a large picture and mugshots of participants. A rather lightweight feel to it, for what is supposed to be a heavyweight paper. All part, I suppose, of the editorial budget running on empty.

PS: I should add that I have a long standing prejudice against advertisements. The world consumes, or at least the north western part of it consumes, far too much stuff, and in so far as advertising encourages us to consume more, it is a bad thing. Not to mention all the treasure, sound and fury expended on the advertisements themselves. A view which has softened from the fervour of adolescence with advancing years, but not by all that much.

Reference 1: https://www.appnexus.com/en.