What do those newspapers think?

Right, so I’ve been on the internet for quite a long time. Like many of you, I most of the time “could” ignore those ads when visiting a newspaper website, but today, while reading the times.com website, I was just simply annoyed. You have to look at the screenshot to understand what I mean:

I mean, what do those editors think when they place an ad like this? Does the newspaper think that we will click on it? As you can clearly see, the ads and navigation takes up around 70% of the screen estate. Never mind the usability of the website, less then me finding my way around.

Thought, this is just one of the examples I’ve seen in recent time, it is clearly the biggest one. Maybe more annoying are the ones that hover on top of the news text and you need to close them or the ones that act on your mouse movements.

Now, I’m not blind and I know that you guys have to make money. But please, find a more decent way to make money. As an example, cooperate with Apple on their iPad offering and place your ads there. Or make a paid subscription model, that makes us readers, a follower of your newspaper instead of one leaving your site immediately (as I did).

If you run out of ideas, I got plenty left and they have proven to work. I’m available at your disposal…