SHARE
COPY LINK

MEDIA

Bild declares war on internet adblockers

Germany's biggest newspaper Bild shuttered its online service on Tuesday to users who have installed so-called adblocker software.

Bild declares war on internet adblockers
Photo: Screenshot from bild.de

Readers of the website of Europe's top-selling newspaper will be asked to switch off the function or purchase a monthly subscription to Bild.de that is nearly free of advertising, its owners media giant Axel Springer said.

“Due to the increased use of the adblocker service, the revenue stream via the advertising market for all online journalists is in jeopardy,” Bild's publishers said in a statement.

The company said it finds the business model of adblocker services – which act like a firewall between web browsers and advertising servers – to be unlawful.

It said it had filed a lawsuit against the adblocker service “Eyeo” and lodged an appeal against the first judgement in the case of the Cologne district court.

Axel Springer describes itself as Europe's leading digital publisher and says it makes more than half of group revenues and nearly three quarters of profit from its digital activities.

Its Bild website is run with a “freemium” model, with some content free but some stories, pictures and exclusive interviews subject to a charge.

“From now on, BILD is testing an anti-adblocker model,” it said, the first such initiative by a major German publisher.

It now offers a “BILDsmart” subscription for €2.99 per month, with a service that is almost ad-free and promising loading times up to 50 percent faster.

“Those who do not turn off their adblocker, or those who do not pay the subscription fee no longer have access to any content from BILD.de,” the company said.

Donata Hopfen, chairwoman of the BILD Group management board, said: “Bild is responding to the increasing adblocker usage by testing a new service.

“Even on the Internet, journalistic services need to be financed via the two well-known income streams – advertising and revenues stream – in order to continue to offer independent journalism.”

SEE ALSO: Springer makes €306m online news bet

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

BUSINESS

Google News to return to Spain after seven-year spat

Google announced Wednesday the reopening of its news service in Spain next year after the country amended a law that imposed fees on aggregators such as the US tech giant for using publishers’ content.

Google News to return to Spain after seven-year spat
Google argues its news site drives readers to Spanish newspaper and magazine websites and thus helps them generate advertising revenue.Photo: Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP

The service closed in Spain in December 2014 after legislation passed requiring web platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay publishers to reproduce content from other websites, including links to their articles that describe a story’s content.

But on Tuesday the Spanish government approved a European Union copyright law that allows third-party online news platforms to negotiate directly with content providers regarding fees.

This means Google no longer has to pay a fee to Spain’s entire media industry and can instead negotiate fees with individual publishers.

Writing in a company blog post on Wednesday, Google Spain country manager Fuencisla Clemares welcomed the government move and announced that as a result “Google News will soon be available once again in Spain”.

“The new copyright law allows Spanish media outlets — big and small — to make their own decisions about how their content can be discovered and how they want to make money with that content,” she added.

“Over the coming months, we will be working with publishers to reach agreements which cover their rights under the new law.”

News outlets struggling with dwindling print subscriptions have long seethed at the failure of Google particularly to pay them a cut of the millions it makes from ads displayed alongside news stories.

Google argues its news site drives readers to newspaper and magazine websites and thus helps them generate advertising revenue and find new subscribers.

SHOW COMMENTS