• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, May 3, 2016

Adblock Plus is offering publishers an olive branch of sorts, although no one is holding their breath for a reconciliation with the Germany-based company, which has aroused publishers’ ire by blocking ads and creating a whitelist of “acceptable” advertisers. 

On Tuesday, the company announced a new partnership with Flattr, an online payments platform, that will enable consumers to send cash contributions to publishers and content creators.

Consumers that use Flattr Plus, as the new capability is called, will be able to set a monthly budget to “flattr” or automatically send money to providers of online content, including publications, artists and performers. Payments are apportioned according to which Web sites a user visits the most.

According to the partners, their new collaboration “will let hundreds of millions of users directly and sustainably fund content they love – without reliance on ads, paywalls or paying for single articles.”

Flattr co-founder Linus Olsson stated: “The idea of great content has gotten lost in clickbait headlines and slideshow articles. All with the goal of generating advertising revenues. If we want to reverse that trend, we need a funding model that is based on engagement and attention rather than mere visits.”

Flattr first gained notice earlier this decade when it provided a way for supporters to donate money to WikiLeaks, after Visa, MasterCard and PayPal cut off payments to the site under government pressure.

A new crop of ad-blocking programs threatens publishers with a new round of revenue losses. Earlier this year, Brave Software unveiled a new Web browser and revealed business model that would include blocking publishers ads and replacing them with its own ads, while still displaying the publishers’ content on the browser and apps.

Last month, 17 members of the Newspaper Association of America, representing a total of around 1,200 newspapers across the U.S., signed a letter to Brave warning that its plans for ad-blocking and replacement in its new browser are illegal.