For what it's worth, 9 times out of 10, you can hit the "Reader" button in Safari and it will show you the article without you clicking on anything in the ad. This way you get the content you wanted, you don't look at the ad, and it doesn't register that you clicked on anything, even the close box.
It's how I get around the "you exceeded your article reads for the day/week/month, subscribe to read the article" of the Seattle Times. The content's hiding right behind that popup. Feedly's "remove clutter" button in their iOS app works equally well.
