Privacy Protection Versus Advertising Revenues: The Case of Content Publishers

Users as consumers of the content generated by publishers expect to receive a certain level of content quality and availability. However, consumers often do not accept the monetization schemes employed by publishers to ensure sufficient revenue streams to support their editorial work and infrastructure. To protect their privacy, a growing number of users utilize ad blockers that protect them from displaying third-party advertisements while browsing the internet and consuming the content. Content publishers are looking for ways of increasing their income through new subscription models and online advertising. In this paper, the authors introduce a framework that enables the publishers of digital content to utilize the potential of the online advertising revenue stream with respect to the preferences of their audience and the privacy protection practices applied by website users. An empirical research in the form of a case study analyzing 105 websites located in seven countries was conducted using the method of content analysis. The suggested framework consists of three main approaches that can be adopted by content publishers to optimize the effectiveness of their online advertising system and thus maximize the contribution of advertising sales revenues to the media budget