Readers don't know that ads pay for most of their favourite publications

A British survey shows that most consumers don't understand how their favourite publications are supported. Specifically, what proportion of revenues come from advertising. This, according to a post by Erik Sass on the Publishers Daily blog:

Overall, 62% of the British adults surveyed by Teads either didn’t know that roughly half of newspaper revenues come from advertising in the UK, or greatly underestimated the proportion of total revenues contributed by advertising. 

Perceptions were even more out of line with reality for online publications, where 75% of revenues come from ads. 

Also, 65% of the respondents said they think society would be harmed by the absence of free or relatively inexpensive news publications, including newspapers, magazines and online publishers. But in a classic case of having one’s cake and eating it too, 15% of consumers surveyed said they are already using an ad blocker -- and this group was actually 12% more likely to value free or low-cost news.