Fairfax admits to paywall pop-up flaw with ads
Paywall: The two ads on this page have been served. One is almost entirely hidden and neither can be clicked on
Publisher Fairfax Media has conceded that a design flaw in its newly installed paywall is resulting in ads running which readers cannot click on and at times cannot even see.
The paywall was installed on smh.com.au and theage.com.au in July and allows readers to view up to 30 articles per month without a subscription. When readers reach the maximum number of articles, a page pops up asking them to pay for a subscription and although the pop-up blocks most of the page from being seen, Fairfax continues to serve ads in the background.
The company originally said it was unaware of there being any problem, however after enquiries from Mumbrella’s sister title Encore, it conceded there was an issue, and said that it was instead “over-delivering” ad impressions to make up for the technical flaw in the system.
“We are aware of this issue and are working on a technical solution,” said a Fairfax spokeswoman.
The company claimed the percentage of impressions was only a small percentage of its overall audience.
“The number of people encountering the paywall is a tiny fraction of our audience and we will continue to over-deliver ad impressions until we have the fix in place,” said the spokeswoman.
For run-of-site inventory Fairfax usually charges advertisers on a CPM, or cost per 1,000 impressions, basis and Encore understands that technically it is not practical to separate out the impressions where consumers are not blocked by the paywall.
Rival publisher News Corp Australia, which also recently introduced a paywall, also blocks consumers from reading after a certain number of articles but the system does not block the reader’s ability to see or click on advertisements.
Nic Christensen
This story first appeared in the weekly edition of Encore available for iPad and Android tablets. Visit encore.com.au for a preview of the app or click below to download.
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Fairfax Media
I’ve noticed this. I just us Chrome in Incognito mode now as my regular browser so I don’t have to worry about any of the pay walls.
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I think that one is absolutely another Roger Corbett stuff up
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Fairfax can’t count either. I used my 30 free articles in July, however I still cannot access anything for free and it’s Aug 16. I thought they would have started the counter again as from Aug 1. Guess you only get 30 articles – total!
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“The number of people encountering the paywall is a tiny fraction of our audience”
See ABC figures today. Not a great quote.
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keep it down Billy, don’t think they’ve realised that yet!
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Can’t wait to see what their web stats will look like post paywall. Will subscriber revenue equal or exceed display ad revenue? We’ll wait and see 😉
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Ashley, just clear your cache and it will reset the article count.
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They seem to have technical issues with SMH iPad app locking up as well
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Ashley, the counter starts on the day you read your first article, not on the 1st of the month.
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I’m a subscriber and it kicks me off the iPad so I’m going elsewhere now. Not very impressed .
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