I’ve gladly paid Salon.com for ad-free access to content I like to read – particularly as ads become increasingly loud and distracting, i.e. hypothetically “more effective” for increasingly desperate news organizations.

The free with ads model does not restrict access for full content, link or search access.

It does provide folk who actually value the content to make their choice by paying for ad free access to news sources they value – and increase their loyalty to those sources.

Increased loyalty opens the door to other premium offerings.

Jason Preston talked about this in http://eatsleeppublish.com/should-you-offer-your-print-newspaper-subscription-for-free/

but see little discussion of the ad=free; no-ad=premium option as a viable alternative. Am I the only person who likes this choice?