LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Dear Concho Observer,
I see that you have ads now. I totally understand online news magazines badly need money. I realize this and I’m glad that y’all are getting some much needed revenue.
I have so enjoyed your excellent reporting and features on issues that sorely needed to be heard in San Angelo. I so want Concho Observer to be the Best Reporting that lives up to your Ethics page statements, and to look forward to reading new installments.
Your pre-ad web design was promising, clean, and easy to read. But, the Concho Observer webpage is now just like all the other online news and have totally filled your pages with so many visually distracting ads that it make the “act of reading” so much of a chore that one gets physically fatigued trying to navigate the content from the ads.
I was hoping that the Concho Observer webpage would be different, but, alas, it’s not.
Now, one has to push a box out of the way, get assaulted by a blaring ads that takes up a third of the page, spend wasted time trying to differentiate an ad to the actually article I was trying to read, etc.
Making ads that are so similar to the article is SUCH a distracting act — an insult to clean design — and reduces your great post “ad” days to now looking like a grocery line tabloid magazine.
I was so hoping you wouldn’t go down this path.
Instead of really enjoying a well-crafted, informative and important article, I’m now so distracted by ads and poor web design that I’m literally in a bad mood and do not want to explore the site any more at that time.
I truly believe this Ad/Content distractions is a real problem across the internet that does a dis-service to the reading-comprehension abilities of the citizens.
Why can’t you create a page where the ads are smaller and off the side and have the article covering two thirds of the page in long form, uninterrupted space? Is this possible?
I donated $100 to your magazine based on your first web design. Can you provide a “ad free” subscription?
Plus, now I can’t “log in” as it doesn’t recognize my email address, and seems to want a password, which wasn’t needed before. Please help me on this.
You are doing a get job, enjoying your great writing and want Concho Observer to be the best.
Thank you for indulging me on my rants!
— Drew Sykes, Knickerbocker
Editors Note
The same day we received Mr. Sykes’ email we were creating an ad-free version of our site for those who do not want to be bombarded by popup ads. For just $10 a month (35 cents per day), you can read The Concho Observer ad free across all platforms, and help support local journalism. Sign up for our Ad-Free Site Here.
The ads currently appearing on the site are generated by a Google Ads plugin, which we have a limited ability to control.
We are experimenting with the system and working to make the regular site cleaner, curating advertisements so they fit our audience and region better.
We appreciate your patience, and your support!
JMH
