Heres one way to tell the difference between real advertising and adtech:
Real advertising wants to be in a publication because it values the publications journalism and readership. Adtech wants to push ads at readers anywhere it can find them.
About a week after our launch, I was seated at a dinner next to a major advertising executive. He complimented me on our new sites quality and on that of a predecessor site we had created and run, AllThingsD.com. I asked him if that meant hed be placing ads on our fledgling site. He said yes, hed do that for a little while. And then, after the cookies he placed on Recode helped him to track our desirable audience around the web, his agency would begin removing the ads and placing them on cheaper sites our readers also happened to visit. In other words, our quality journalism was, to him, nothing more than a lead generator for target-rich readers, and would ultimately benefit sites that might care less about quality.
whether or not a site uses "actual advertising" doesnt really matter to me. i just know that when i block ads the site i am enjoying content from doesn't receive revenue. since gamefaqs.gamespot.com provides me with entertainment i'm ok with providing them revenue in the form of page-views with ads being loaded. ---
Playing: Sunset Overdrive, Vermintide 2 You see it your way, I'll see it mine and I'll be fine