Riddle me this, Batman

The reason companies have historically been willing to pay big bucks for print ads is that the publishers can provide demographic and circulation data: i.e., we have 20,000 subscribers. 27% of them have completed college. 18% have household incomes over $150,000. Etc.

Online ads? If I’m logged in to a site, which is increasingly the case, and I click on an ad, the site owner could potentially tell the advertiser everything they know about me.

And somehow that’s worth less?

People, we have to figure out the financial model for online advertising, or all we’ll be left with is non-professional content (and as a non-professional content creator, that scares the hoo-has out of me).