I see people on here talking about cancelling their Irish Times subscriptions.

While I understand that full page ad caused hurt and upset - and obviously people can do whatever they want with their money - it seems counterproductive.

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Bear in mind that the journalists at the Times don't have control over the advertising that appears in their paper or on their site.

There are many Irish Times journalists who have done brilliant public service journalism throughout the pandemic.

"Why don't they walk?" you say.

Cool, point them in the direction of all those journalism jobs you're aware of that are well-paid and are for publications that don't significantly depend on advertising for revenue.

If the Irish Times believed its subscription revenue alone could keep it afloat, that ad would likely never have appeared.

And at the end of the day, cancelling your subscription won't really punish the *company*, drops in revenue always hurt the lowly journalists most.

We're all exhausted in this industry at the moment and we need your support. Subscribing is a way of telling us you appreciate our work and will help keep us in a job.

It can also give you some power as a reader.

Through @thejournal_ie's subscription model, readers can send us feedback about why they've decided to support us financially. Many say it's because if our Factchecking work, or @NickyRyan_'s coronavirus newsletter.

We're more likely to do more of that as a result.

My point is, in your understandable rage about that disgusting ad, please try to think of the bigger picture and if you want more good journalism, subscribe to whoever you think is doing it well. If you've appreciated the IT journalists' pandemic coverage so far, stick with them

And if you appreciate our work at @thejournal_ie, you can contribute or subscribe here: https://www.thejournal.ie/contribute/