According to the 2016 Reuters Digital New Report, Ad Blocking is becoming a serious problem for publishers. Reuters surveyed about 50,000 users across 26 different countries. The results of the survey suggest that people using the blocker are usually users who get news online and under 35s. It seems that age is an important determinant, as those between the age of 18 and 24 are the highest users of ad blockers. Among the different countries included in the sample, the USA is third with about 24% of the users saying that they block ads. 

As more and more users start using ad blockers, publishers are starting taking action. In March, The New York Times started showing his users the following message: “The best things in life aren’t free”. It then explained that “advertising helps us fund our journalism” and gave the visitor two options to read the newspaper’s online content: disable their ad-blocking software or pay for a subscription.

Read more at the Financial Times