WSJ asks users to turn off ad blockers

The Wall Street Journal is asking its online readers to turn off their ad blockers, reports Lucia Moses of Digiday.

Moses writes, “Visitors to the financial news publisher’s site are being greeted with a polite message asking them to turn off their ad blockers and to subscribe to the publication.

“A rep for the Journal said it’s showing the messages to some WSJ.com readers in the U.S. and Europe who have installed ad blockers. It doesn’t block the Journal’s free-access articles.

“The move is interesting since the Journal is blocking articles that already require a subscription, making the case that not only should readers pay $200 a year for access but also take the ads (and tracking) that comes with the package. In the Journal’s case, the messages don’t appear to people unless they’re not logged in, though, either as a subscriber or through social media, which would seem to minimize that risk. It’s not known if the Journal plans to up the ante and prevent ad blockers from reading the site altogether.”

Read more here.