jackal

That's the problem. It actually has to be an outrageous price (think more along the lines of $100+/year, not the $25ish/year it used to be) to replace the ad revenue they'd lose. Also, without Randy's contacts and influence in the industry, the prospect of getting travel industry benefits and swag along with any paid subscription here is very low, which would further reduce the value proposition for members. And with a very small uptake rate, it's not really worth the bother for them to put a product together. (Yes, you could argue that some amount--$25 or whatever--is better than the $0 they get when you use an ad blocker, but the beancounters-at-IB's solution to that is to outlaw the use of adblockers rather than accept it and work with it, but whatever. It's their site.)

I do wish they'd switch to a more reputable ad provider that doesn't put through such poorly-screened ads, but with more reputable ad networks comes lower pay-per-click rates, so that probably ain't happening anytime soon, either.