AIBU to think that the Independent web pages are practically unreadable?

[BishyBarnyBee]

Huge adverts down the side, "sponsored content", banner adverts, pop ups, autoplay video - it's almost impossible to read an article on there.

I know it's how they make their money, but it's so cluttered, it stops me wanting to use it.

I could probably get an ad-blocker, but obviously that's not what they want you to do, as again, no income for them.

But why would you make your site virtually unreadable? Doesn't it just stop people using it?

YABU - it works fine for me
YANBU - it's a terrible website

Yes it's a disgrace, crawling with flashing ads, you'd get a migraine if you stayed on site for more than a minute. I have Adblock Plus and sometimes look at the Independent using that, but otherwise never. Not much point them saying they need the ads for income if nobody looks at the site because of the ads! The same is true of local newspaper websites, ridiculous adverts make sure nobody reads the articles. They've basically shot themselves in the foot.

YANBU. I had an ad blocker on my browser. I've actually uninstalled it but the Independent still won't let me view their site. And they also don't let you read articles without registering. I feel it's just an exercise in data harvesting as there is no legitimate reason to need to register to read their content, which is generally readily available elsewhere as most news sites cover the same stories, usually just with different biases and half-facts.

The Independent is also 30% owned by a very rich sultan from Saudi Arabia.

So many unusable news sites! Reach group sites are the worst. If there's anything interesting I just paste straight to Adblock.

Yes it's awful, I can never manage to read a whole page on it, I give up quickly.

it is unreadable due to the woke agenda

It makes my laptop explode. I agree so many unreadable sites now, especially news sites. And the constant stream of cookie popups too. I think I preferred it when sites just stole my data without telling me.

Just install https://ublockorigin.com/

I haven't seen an ad online for ten years.

Have you tried it with the Independent site? I've found the Independent blocks access to pretty much every standard ad blocker. They have also replaced much of the news content with videos. I can read articles faster than I can watch one of their poorly made videos.

I've long since given up on using it as a news site, partly because the site is unusable but also the quality of content went downhill. It used to be a good alternative news source, especially for foreign coverage - now it seems to be poor quality content all round.

It's awful to use. It's such a shame because I can't really find a good non boring but unbiased news site and the independent is the closest I've found. But like you point out, pretty much unusable!

Thanks, everyone, glad it's not just me. I don't understand how they get any readers at all, but presumably some people can cope with it or they would fold.

Richmondgal, I suspect we may be after different things from our browsing. If you see wokeness as the biggest problem in today's media, you're probably very comfortable with the Express or Mail.

Yes and it’s interesting given the editor is Geordie Greig who had been editor at the Daily Mail.
Quite an ideological leap there - but maybe these editors are just hired guns who will fit in with what is required.

Yes, the popups are shocking. I hope the Guardian never goes behind a paywall or there will be no reliable-ish free UK news sites at all (if there's another one I'd be very interested to hear about it).

I was also going to mention the Reach groups. Why do they have such clickbait nonsense on them?

Apart from columnists, journalists write to the target audience for their publication rather than their own ideology. You will often see writers crossing between the Guardian and the Mail, for example.

I'm not sure I'd call the Grauniad reliable since Viner was shipped in from the US to take over as editor.

The Observer on Sundays is still pretty good and its brought home to me just how much the daily Guardian has gone downhill.

I find the same. I have an ad blocker but the videos still wreck the page.