What I don't understand is, surely their online reader numbers are plummeting. Why do they not recognize they are alienating users? Its almost like the logic is, "well we lost more users, so let's make up for it by adding more ads and intrusive design that supports them to stop the bleeding", not realizing they are just making it worse.

Its like when I go to a page and it tries to load 16-30 JavaScript's from god knows where.

Its why I try to make pure css-html5 pages, almost to counter balance the craziness of webdev these days.