The Atlantic is the latest online magazine to ask readers who use ad blockers to pay up, reports Media Post. The Atlantic gives ad-blocking readers three options:

1. Whitelist the website to enable ads, or
2. Disable their ad blocking software, or
3. Subscribe to an ad-free version for $3.99 a month, or $39.99 a year

Readers who do not use ad blockers can still access The Atlantic online for free. According to Media Post, the paywall is in beta testing and not fully implemented so, for now, ad-blocking readers can still access the content for free. This will change as The Atlantic transitions to HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) which is projected to occur by year end.

In addition to implementing the hard paywall, The Atlantic is working on other changes including using third-party monitoring to test ads for malware and improving page load time, performance and ad integration for a better user experience.

The Atlantic also wants to prevent lost advertising revenue caused by ad blockers. According to the Wall Street Journal, about 8.5 percent of The Atlantic’s readers utilize ad blockers which translates to millions of dollars in lost revenue.

“Digital advertising is the single biggest source of our revenue,” said Kim Lau, senior vice president of digital and head of business development at The Atlantic in an October 17 article on WSJ.com. “It’s obviously a concern to us if there’s a segment – and potentially a growing segment of the population – that doesn’t understand that value exchange.”

Other media outlets are experimenting with similar workarounds to ad blockers:

• Business Insider is testing a paywall for ad-blocking readers. It is asking ad-blocking users to disable their ad blockers, whitelist the site, or subscribe to an ad-free version.
• The New York Times is also experimenting with an ad-free version.
• In February, WIRED was among the first to announce a bold plan to convert ad-blocking readers to paying customers, asking them to whitelist their site or pay $1 a week for access to ad-free content.
• In January, GQ offered ad-blocking readers the option of whitelisting the site or making micropayments of $0.50 each to read individual articles.

Insider Take:

Though still a relatively new tactic, more publishers are trying this whitelist-us-or-else approach to fight ad blockers. We will be interested to see how readers respond – are they willing to pay-to-play, either by subscribing or whitelisting and seeing ads, or will they go elsewhere to get free content? It seems that the more specialized the content, the more loyal the audience will be because that content may not be available elsewhere. We anticipate that more publishers will try this experiment with each deciding what the right price point is for their content and audience.