What is the experience of reading?

Would you read a paper every morning where the print was blurry and difficult to read?  Or what about a paper where the article refused to be read if you didn't watch an ad first?

I was perusing the feed of my favorite brain site - mindhacks - and came across a reference to an article in Salon that sounded very interesting.

I can't tell you if it was as interesting as it sounded because I was unable to read it.

Above is the page with the article on it.  Or at least I think there was an article somewhere under the ads. Ads that wouldn't go away I might ad.

Maybe this was a glitch - a bunch of rogue ads gone haywire and breaking free of their restraints to run unimpeded across my screen.  It's certainly not an unusual experience with more and more media sites becoming an insane asylum housed by disturbed ads that refuse to take their medications.

With online readership up to 20% of a paper's readership, at least up here in Canada, I had naively hoped that the online experience would quickly start to improve.  I expected to see organizations breaking new ground in how to leverage and engage with me using digital channels.

Instead I appear to be seeing the opposite on so very many sites.  I think there are two reasons.

First, online advertising brings in less than 20 cents on the dollar of what a traditional reader would generate.  So we are finding ourselves suddenly bombarded with wave after wave of larger and flashier advertisements - floating ads that block the page, explode, blink and even trigger epileptic fits.

Second, there is a lack of imagination in the industry.  Everyone is focused on how to leverage or extend print into the digital space.  What drives me insane is that even the digital-only zines, LIKE SALON, are doing anything but innovate in this space.

Can we help the media industry?  Set your critic hat aside and join in the conversation.  Imagine a different media space or share a site that you feel is doing just that.

What if digital media served a basic human need that traditional media missed?  What would this need be?

What kind of online media would be more trusted than print?  Where do we not trust traditional media?

What if digital media could create change in the world?