Until ads went rogue and started serving me malware, I never had a problem with them.
After being served up a malicious pop-up that silently installed a bitcoin miner a few years ago, I started whitelisting javascript with a plugin, blocking ads, etc.
I haven't had a malware problem since I started doing this. I don't think it's a coincidence.
The most convenient solution I've found for my phone is using the Firefox app, which has extension support.
There are certain attempts to bring this "pay for content" to masses. Current model of subscribing to each site doesnt work. I dont think there is one widely adopted solution exists that would let you do one payment and access to sites. I sae attempts like cointent and brave, but whether they stick or not is yet to be seen.
Subscription payments can be extremely profitable, leading the the continued existence and even expansion of the site. The only downside is that only people who subscribe can see the majority of the content.
Ads merely mean that more people can access the same information, including people who could have never or would have never paid for it.
subscriptions today are per site. you have to maintain multiple subscriptions. Many people dislikes that. I wouldn't hesitate a second to subscribe if there was something that centralizes the subscription (like 10$ for month worth of content, split among publishers based on how much time i spend and what the value of content is).
After being served up a malicious pop-up that silently installed a bitcoin miner a few years ago, I started whitelisting javascript with a plugin, blocking ads, etc.
I haven't had a malware problem since I started doing this. I don't think it's a coincidence.
The most convenient solution I've found for my phone is using the Firefox app, which has extension support.