In the past 12 months ad blocking software use increased by 41 percent.
According to PageFair ad blocking reduced publisher income by $22 billion in 2015. That's a scary number. This makes it even hard for digital publishers to earn money from their content.
To me that's the key issue with digital ads as a main revenue source for a publication. For online ads to generate enough revenue, either content prices have to be very low (and that means low quality) or your audience needs to be national or international in nature and huge. Clickbait is a byproduct of the need for lots of eyeballs from all sorts of people. Are we really ever going to see that kind of traffic for local news and information? Never.
The market rightly places most online ads at a lower rate per thousand views than print magazines or television. Online is a tough environment to attract attention and break through the clutter.