[alistairSH]

Sure, but do those ads generate enough revenue to stay in business?

How is this site’s “Pay or Take a Cookie” approach worse for the consumer than a total paywall?

I’d rather we didn’t have to have annoying ads, but generating and hosting content costs money.

[dvdkon]

The downside of this approach is that the publishers don't want to remake their business model, so they make the subscription fee so high that they couldn't possibly ever lose money on people they don't track.

Then even the small part of the population that would consider going through the process of adding yet another subscription to their life either leaves or consents to tracking, because who's going to pay 5 EUR (and Heise is pretty "cheap" compared to some) for access to one article?

I would not be so angry with the concept if the costs, and the effort necessary to pay, was more in line with the income from personalised ads. Pay two cents per view with the push of a button? Sure. Pay 2 EUR for a week of access? Maybe. But so many publications want me to pay almost a print subscription price for any access, clearly showing they don't intend this as a real alternative.