The Wall Street Journal'sMike Shields reports on a growing concern that bloated, large ads are slowing page load times and wreaking havoc on consumers' experience and thereby contributing to
the ad-blocking epidemic. He reports that many publishers and agencies produce "oversized, tracking-laden digital ad files and often deliver them at the last minute without enough time for publishers
to push back." This often results in sluggish Web page load times and causes frustrated consumer to deploy ad blockers. Publishers and ad tech firms have been cast as the parties most
responsible for ad blocking but, the report argues, ad agencies may be just as much to blame.
Tim Mahlman, AOL's president of publisher platforms, maintains that on one side, the digital
media business has spent the past several years trying to attract more TV advertisers by proving itself as a viable vehicle for image-oriented branding vs. serving primarily as a venue for marketers
looking to sell products directly. The result is a drive for bigger, unavoidable, interactive ad units that take over Web pages, bogging them down.
Read the whole story at The Wall Street Journal »
