Dive summary: 

• Declining ad rates are contributing to the slowing growing trend of websites turning to ad-free revenue models, like paid subscriptions, to stay afloat. 
• Many sites are opting to run both an ad-free paid subscription site along side a free site with ads allowing for income from both sides of the model. 
• Other sites, like The Dish, are opting for a metered model which allows visitors a set number of free articles before they hit a pay wall. 

From the article: 

"This is web publishing in 2013, when declining ad rates and the sense that each buck is harder to get than the last is leading increasing numbers of publishers to strip out the ads and ask readers to pony up. Even The New York Times has at least contemplated the idea of an ad-free version, asking readers about it in a recent survey about potential new products. Its sibling The Boston Globe already operates two websites, the free Boston.com, which is packed with all kinds of traditional ads, and the subscriber-only BostonGlobe.com, with far fewer, and much less intrusive, ads."