Having lurked around the site using an alias, I should probably now admit that I am a 'suit' at Haymarket. Given that it's my call whether and where we run ads, I can't leave it to the mods and techies to answer your questions.
Simple truth is, that yes, it does cost us to build and run websites. Much of this site has actually been built from love and sweat and late nights, for which I am hugely grateful to Nigel and his team of journalists, and to John and Austin (known sometimes as "Jostin") and the techies. But it does cost, and as we want to grow it into a wonderful resource, will continue to do so.
So how to pay for it? Back when the web was bright and shiney and new I worked on What Car? It cost a lot to build - all that car data to organise, tests to re-write, vidos to shoot and serve. Lots of people used it, and we got the money in from advertising. It was a big success. And lots of people complained about the ads, more than had complained about anything else in our experience. So we listened, and acted, and built a second site with no ads, but a 'payment gateway'. Users could choose whether they had a free site with ads or pay the same as the magazine cover price for an ad free site.
Three people paid, half a million didn't. I rather wish I hadn't spent the money on the test, but you have to agree, it was conclusive.
So that's why we run ads, and build other commercial bits too. It's the way it has to be. It's that or no site, really.
And whilst many people do resent them, many more in fact use the ads. If they didn't, the advertisers wouldn't pay us.
So that's it really. We do try hard not to have ads that get in the way. We never compromise our tests for financial gain. But we are a business.
Bob McDowell
Suit
Haymarket
Facebook
Twitter