justin․searls․co

Opinion | Ads linking to paywalled articles are stupid

I saw this promoted post in my Reddit feed and thought, "huh, maybe WaPo is trying to entice new readers with ads pairing gift links to articles and targeted demographics that might engage with them."

LOL, no. You click anywhere on this and you instantly get hit with a paywall.

Who is this for? Current subscribers that don't read the Washington Post? People who planned to subscribe and forgot?

Absolute idiocy.


Got a taste for hot, fresh takes?

Then you're in luck, because you can subscribe to this site via RSS or Mastodon! And if that ain't enough, then sign up for my newsletter and I'll send you a usually-pretty-good essay once a month. I also have a solo podcast, because of course I do.