The right way to block ads on news sites
Recent News for iOS will soon have reader view — which displays the text of news articles but not the advertisements.
Background: We’re implementing a feature that Apple built into iOS 9 called Safari View Controller. It lets users tap on a button to enter reader view, which intelligently hides ads but not images from the article itself.
We’re implementing the controller not only because our users really, really want it, but also because it’s a better experience overall. The controller is faster and more stable on large webpages than the in-app webview we currently use with iOS, it integrates well with Safari, it has a nicer UI for navigation, and on devices with 3D Touch it provides automatic peek for links.
This was a difficult decision because we want to support good journalism, and, at the margin, not showing advertisements could affect news organizations’ revenue.
We take this seriously. I previously worked as a technology journalist for CNET and Wired and we’re the first news app (that I’m aware of, at least) using article quality as an input to our recommendation engine. Recent News wouldn’t exist without excellent journalism.
So what we’re doing is not implementing a controller feature called “entersReaderIfAvailable.” That feature hides ads by default on sites with reader view available. Because we’re not enabling that feature, ads will always be loaded by default.
We’ll revisit this decision in a month or so and see if it still makes sense — especially because the state of ad blocking on iOS is currently in flux. But at least at the moment, that’s how we’re planning to give our users the great experience they’ve come to expect from Recent News while simultaneously supporting good journalism.
Declan McCullagh is the co-founder and CEO of Recent News, a startup that aims to transform mobile news reading through artificial intelligence. He lives on the San Francisco peninsula.
