The old model of publishing is dying.
It might not know it yet, or at least it does not want to admit it to itself. We can see this in the fact that Facebook is working on trying to bypass ad-blockers, since ads are its main source of revenue. On Facebook, you are the product. People are drifting away from blindly accepting advertising as a cost of the content on the net. Our attention and time is far more valuable.
Steem provides a different and better model. There are no ads, and we do not need them at all.