Tech Start-up Offers Ad-Free News

Want a news without all the ads? A new tech service called Scroll is offering users the news, ad-free. Customers can sign up to read their favorite news sites...

(Photo Credit: Scroll)

Want a news without all the ads?

A new tech service called Scroll is offering users the news, ad-free. Customers can sign up to read their favorite news sites without having to scroll past annoying ads.

“Scroll distributes your membership to sites you read based on their share of your engagement. Those sites make more money than they would from showing you ads and deliver you a faster, better experience. Every month, we’ll tell you where your membership went and which sites you supported,” Scroll says on its Web site. “To make sure we work everywhere, Scroll directly integrates into sites rather than relying on a browser extension. When you visit a partner site, the site checks to see if you’re a Scroll member and knows not to load ads and trackers.”

The founders of Scroll said they started the service by trying to envision an ad-free Internet.

“It would be blazing fast, no ad technology slowing things down. It would be clean, no clickbait links at the bottom of articles. It would be private, no shadowy trackers selling your data.
It would encourage quality—paying for engagement, not clicks,” Scroll says.

The service costs $4.99 a month. Scroll keeps 30 percent and gives the other 70 percent to participating news organizations. Sites available ad-free through scroll include Buzzfeed, Slate, The Onion, and Business Insider. Unfortunately, Scroll can’t help you access news sites, like the New York Times, that are already behind a paywall.