The New York Times inadvertently found itself on both sides of the media world's ongoing ad-blocking conversation this week when a public statement by its CEO was countered by an article about smartphone battery life.
On one side of the argument stood CEO Mark Thompson, who spoke against the practice on Tuesday during a keynote discussion at New York's Social Media Week—and suggested possibly banning Times access for users who employ ad-blocking software. Adweek reported on that conversation, which saw Thompson say that his paper's content should be valued "like it's HBO rather than a broadcast network" and that "trying to use and get the benefit of the Times' journalism without making any contribution to how it's paid is not good."
Yet the Times followed those statements on Wednesday with a feature-length guide in its technology section titled "Tips and Myths About Extending Smartphone Battery Life." The guide, which is advertised as "part of a series of creative collaborations with The Wirecutter," covers topics such as downloading media instead of streaming it and keeping a phone's automatic brightness setting enabled, and it also dismisses battery-related myths. Most interestingly—at least in light of Thompson's statements—is its unqualified recommendation to "block power-sucking ads."
"When browsing the web, your smartphone also burns through power when it downloads mobile ads on websites," the guide says. "Installing an ad blocker will greatly extend battery life." The guide then confirms that typical battery tests on both an iPhone 6s and a Moto X Pure become much more efficient with software such as 1Blocker and Ghostery installed. The guide doesn't clarify anything about blocking specific kinds of ads for battery gains.
Thompson didn't call either of those ad-blocking programs out by name, but he did criticize some apps' use of "whitelisting"—meaning, letting certain publishers' content through the blocks in exchange for payments. Those apps' creators "essentially are asking for extortion to allow for ads to take place," Thompson said.
Thompson also confirmed both print and online subscriber counts at the Times: 1.38 million and nearly 1.1 million, respectively. The latter grew by 53,000 in the fourth quarter of 2015, Thompson told the Social Media Week audience. Also, during that quarter, the paper's print advertising revenue shrank by seven percent, while its digital advertising revenue grew by eight percent—but those percentage numbers may mask a greater gap between print and digital rates.
The Times began requiring paid subscriptions to access more than 10 articles a month in March 2011, but crafty users have since found ways to get around the requirement. In particular, the 10-freebies-per-month limit doesn't take a hit when articles are accessed through shared Twitter or Facebook links.
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