[a3n]

It's not flawed, it's just not simple. Or, it's a happy accident that people figured out how to be middlemen between advertisers and news consumers (the classic example).

In the paper newspaper days I didn't mind ads at all. And I probably wouldn't have paid the full cost of subscription if the advertisers weren't the real source of income.

Now, as someone in another said, advertisers are stalkers. I mind that.

[douche]

In the newspaper, the ads stayed in their boxes, and you could easily ignore them - honestly, I don't ever actually seeing newspaper ads, they faded into the background so much. They weren't playing music, flashing gifs, launching fullscreen popup windows and click-through modals.

[a3n]

Exactly. The online ads are objectionable by design.

[subpixel]

Have you seen a weekend local paper in the U.S. recently? There are whole ad sections that I drop straight in the trash. It's often at least 50% of the paper by weight.

There may be deals for supermarket meat etc. but in general it seems like a total waste.

[a3n]

That's been the case for decades. When I used to get the Sunday paper half of it would go straight to the trash before I poured my coffee.