Publishers Only Have Themselves to Blame for the Ad-Blocking Apocalypse

There’s been a lot of talk lately — and more than a little hand-wringing — about the rise of online ad blocking. In part, that’s because of a recent study that shows what appears to be a dramatic increase in the use of ad-blocking software. It might also have something to do with the news that the next version of Apple’s mobile Safari browser will be able to block ads automatically (except for Apple’s own ads, of course), which threatens to make ad blocking mainstream.