

Ask HN: Is Pando doomed? - jeo1234

For a while it seemed like PandoDaily might rise to the level of some the big tech news sites (recode, TechCrunch, Ars Technica). Heck they even got mentioned on season 1 of Silicon Valley.
But they have put up a pay wall and now charge $10 a month for access, which seems outrageously high given that is the same amount the Economist asks for.
It seems to me that within a year or two they will likely be defunct.
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teaneedz
Pando, like so many publishers, doesn't understand what the market will bear -
or how to deliver solid UX. Although I'm curious how that paywall is working
out, I doubt it's doing very well. Many visitors have probably replaced Pando
with content from elsewhere already. I wonder why a publisher won't innovate
with advertisers instead of users - create static, non-tracking, unintrusive
ads and tell advertisers that they are protecting the user experience instead
of selling out access to their visitor's metadata and profiles. Sell that to
advertisers until they get their heads out of the sand. No, I won't ask
someone for a Pando link, support the paywall approach or share Pando content
with others. I'm sure that I'm an acceptable loss for their bottom line - at
least for now.

~~~
a3n
> create static, non-tracking, unintrusive ads and tell advertisers that they
> are protecting the user experience instead of selling out access to their
> visitor's metadata and profiles.

I'd subscribe to that, assuming a reasonable price. However, I assume
publishers have done the math, and we lose.

~~~
teaneedz
I wonder if the math is a bit fuzzy and skewed toward the current ad model
though? The ad industry is amock IMO and unfortunately publishers are paying
the price. Maybe Pando has enough loyal subscribers who will pay their
subscription fee, but to me it looks like a pipe dream. Ads could still work I
think, but only if adverts come to grips with why ad blockers are on the rise
in the first place. I really believe many ad block users would allow ads if
the tracking in-our-face approach stopped - not to mention malware. Probably
won't happen.

~~~
stevesearer
I'm happy to hear this here because I finally got rid of Adsense on my site in
favor of direct-sold banners. My main reasoning was that the
retargeted/network purchased ads were not relevant to my content or not of the
quality I want associated with my brand.

When I think of my favorite magazines (which cost money and have ads) the ads
are almost a part of the content and I want to look at them. So I wanted to
try and create that sort of ad quality for my readers; relevant, nice looking
ads that aren't creepy.

~~~
teaneedz
I think you have the right solution. I whitelist any site that takes this
approach. If everyone did this, ad-tech would be forced to change and
publishers would benefit from visitors who appreciate the efforts and better
UX. The web could actually become fast.

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minimaxir
Pando has been doomed for the past year and I am genuinely surprised it still
exists, especially since TheNextWeb and GigaOm, which had actual readers, died
badly.

~~~
borisvvz
The Next Web experimented with a pro account that removed ads. That has been
discontinued but the site is still very much alive.

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jeo1234
When is the last time anyone saw a Pando post on the front page of HN? True,
what Pando has set up is not as strict as the FT (which appears to have an
impermeable paywall), but I suspect very few people are even seeing their
content in the first place.

~~~
dylanjermiah
Using Google you can get past FT's paywall

