I still don't consider articles by Ryan and Ian to be compromised. Sure the site is taking care of business by horribly obnoxious advertising but I don't believe I've seen an obvious lack of integrity from the main writers.
Thank you for the kind words.
For what it's worth, as noted on the About page, my philsophy on the matter is roughly as follows
"Like other news publications since the beginning of time, writing about the world is both a business and a craft. Our goal is to get the best editors we can in order to craft you the best articles that we can, and at the same time stay out of the business of the editors so that they are free to do what is best."
I do have to make AnandTech work as a business, but it's important to me that Purch and I find ways to do that without affecting the content itself. Content is king; it's what brings you guys in day after day, and more importantly it's the quality of that content that has fueled AnandTech's reputation. Losing our integrity or objectivity undermines your confidence in us, and that is a line I don't cross. Which is why there's a firewall between sales and editorial, and is why you don't see things like sponsored posts or advertorials (the buyers guides I will straightforwardly admit are driven by commerce, though not the recommendations within). The editors write about things that they think are important or interesting, as how it should be.
If at any time you do feel like the integrity of the content or the authors is being compromised, then please by all means reach out to me. It'll either be a wake-up call to me, or, hopefully, I can explain to you what's going on and retain your trust.
🙂
As for the ads, I do hear you. The ad situation across the web has become quite bad, and AnandTech has followed that trend. The firewall means that as much the ad guys don't control the content, I don't control the ads. But what i can say is that the ad situation is a result of both declining ad rates and a reduction in direct ad sales. The problematic ads you see are almost entirely 3rd party "programmatic" ads coming in via Google and such. Programmatic ads fill in units for when we don't have a direct sale booked. The solution is to book more direct sale ads, but this is a challenge as the major tech companies have in the last decade shifted most of their remaining "techie" ad dollars into chasing general consumers. (Blogs aimed at new mothers, sports news, etc)
Meanwhile I want a subscription option, and now that we have HTTPS across the site that option is a little more viable. Still, it's not something I can promise right now, only something that we're looking into.
