[eli]

It seems like your complaint is about the poor design of news sites (which I generally agree with) more than it is a philosophical objection to advertising.

(There are some print publications with quite terrible ads too. Not everyone has the standards or resources of Hearst.)

[vinbreau]

These design principles were taught to me while I attended university and are not solely employed by Hearst. Publications that flagrantly disregard lessons learned from the past are horrible and obtuse to read. My point is that publications backed by experienced teams tend to adhere to these lessons, very few web publications could claim the same. Since advertising on the web is much younger, and lacking similar historical perspective, we have an intrusive system for advertising delivery. Advertising in a properly formed publication means the ad layout is determined by an experienced individual and attempts to strike a balance between obtrusiveness and visibility . It seems marketing divisions determine ad placement on the web more than it does in print media and visibility is held to be more important than being less obtrusive, the balance is way off.