You click on an article on how to grow tomatoes in apartment. Bum — the entire page is a banner for White Lotus. You scroll past reality videos, nail fungus and loneliness banners, and have forgotten why you clicked in the first place. You don't read -- you get upset.
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Disclaimer: Apropos Magazine received access or a review copy. As always, we share our own impressions — unfiltered.
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Welcome to the modern media experience.
It's an honest wonder. When did we stop thinking that an article should also feels well? When did the editor aisle -- or maybe just an overly eager SEO official -- decide that design and readability were less important than click-rates and “viewability”?
And it's not just one ad. It's a collage-like inferno of flashing banners, algorithm-driven recommendations, sponsored articles disguised as editorial content and... what's that? A popup for a webinar on retirement savings in the middle of your review of a new rap album?
The worst? It's almost worse if you pay.
“After all, you can just subscribe,” someone says. Sure, but why should I pay for an article that ultimately most of all looks like paid content for MAX, a wine bar, or a girlfriend platform for people with IBS?
It's not just about money
It's about trust. About giving your readers the feeling that you actually wanted to tell them something -- and not just trap them in an advertising trap of breaking bars and clickbait backdrops. It's about respect for the format. And for the reader.
And here comes the embarrassing admission: I had to build my own platform to remember what it might feel like.
Speaking of magazine, there is no cap on the level of ambition. But it doesn't have ads either. Yet. And should they come, we promise you'll get a warning. And that we are never going to advertise athlete's foot in a text about literature. It's got to be a start.
EuroPerson, Jydevenue, PoliticTokken...
Yes, we make fun of them. But it's not just them. It's the whole landscape where opinion and marketing merge into one long, generic stream. And if you're sitting around thinking “well your reviews are just opinions” — then yes. But they are ours attitudes. Not formulated by an affiliate partner in Cologne.
And so what?
It's just like this.
But maybe it could be different. Perhaps there could be media where the design is calm, where the writer gets space, and where you as a reader feel a little less like a target audience — and a little more like a person being spoken to.
At least that's what we're trying here.
