Pageviews Aren’t Perfect, But Ad Buyers See Flaws in Attention Measures

By: Lucia Moses | Digiday

Publishers are selling attention, but are advertisers buying? Turns out even those who support the use of attention minutes see limitations on its adoption.

It’s a tempting idea. The Internet is drowning in pageviews, which has depressed ad rates (a problem that’s been exacerbated by the rise of mobile, where rates are even lower). That has led some publishers — including The Economist, the Financial Times, Upworthy and Medium — to push for ads to be measured based on time spent with them, rather than clicks or pageviews.