The problem is with publishers too small to individually attract the attention of advertisers... which is most of the ones that use advertising to begin with. Any way to solve that problem reintroduces an ad network in some form or another.
Or would you say that advertising is only for big shots, and small-time publishers should just rely on up-front payment?
It's possible to have ad networks, but for publishers to host the software themselves. This would eliminate the tracking and cookies that follow you from site to site.
Or would you say that advertising is only for big shots, and small-time publishers should just rely on up-front payment?