Not relevant to the topic, but how do sites expect you to read articles like this on your phone when they have 50% of the screen taken up by ads, many of which slide onscreen as you scroll, covering part of the content you were reading? This is so intrusive I couldn’t finish reasing it.

I know they have to have some way to pay the bills, but does this technique really work where people get so frustrated they decide to subscribe rather than close the site like I did?

The ad load isn’t heavy to convince you to subscribe. It’s heavy because many readers use ad blockers, and the publisher wants to stay in business somehow.

Hijacking the back button, on the other hand, is just rude.

I haven’t had this thought since installing 1Blocker on my iOS decide years ago…

I didn't see any ads on Firefox mobile + uBlock Origin