I think it's fair game to say "Our newspaper pays for quality journalists to do quality journalism, please consider subscribing or not using an adblocker on our site".
I prefer this to the WaPo model of paywalling or having a limited number of articles.
I do object to the Bloomberg model though, where they say "We notice you're using an ad blocker, which may adversely affect the performance and content on Bloomberg.com. For the best experience, please whitelist the site."
I agree it's fair game. But I think that message needs to recognize why I blocked those ads in the first place. It's not because "I don't like ads" or "I don't want to support you". It because the ads you were showing sucked: they bogged down my computer and they were malicious.
I would very likely unblock a site if they spoke to that. "We've taken numerous steps in the last 3 months to increase your privacy and eliminate bad, bloated, malicious, and frankly user-unfriendly advertising. We value and will not abuse your trust in allowing us to share advertising with you."
Absolutely agree. And for really large sites such as major news sites, there really isn't even an excuse for using any of the "normal" ad networks. There should be (if there isn't already) an ad network with only acceptable non-tracking ads that just show dumb images to people without worrying who sees shoes and who sees cars. I accept a shoe ad as relevant next to a shoe article, not because a Facebook friend sent me a PM with a picture containing a shoe yesterday.
I prefer this to the WaPo model of paywalling or having a limited number of articles.
I do object to the Bloomberg model though, where they say "We notice you're using an ad blocker, which may adversely affect the performance and content on Bloomberg.com. For the best experience, please whitelist the site."
Wth? No way. Please ask nicely, no FUD.