Customize Ars your way with an Ars Pro subscription
This is a promotional piece from Ars Technica's managing editor encouraging readers to subscribe to Ars Pro, highlighting the customisation options and other perks available to subscribers. It is not a news story but a house advert explaining how paying members can tailor the site's appearance and functionality, while also nudging all readers, subscribers or not, to help support the publication's traffic via Google search settings.
The article details two extra homepage layouts unlocked by subscribing: a "Classic" view recreating the site's 1998 design, and a minimalist, text-only "Neutron Star" layout with keyboard navigation. Ars Pro costs $25 and Ars Pro++ costs $50, with both tiers removing ads and trackers, offering full-text RSS feeds and subscriber-only forums, and giving Pro++ members a special badge. The piece also asks readers to set Ars Technica as a "Preferred Source" in Google search settings, noting that AI-generated search summaries have reduced traffic to the site.
- Ars Technica promotes its Ars Pro subscription and layout options
- Subscribers get Classic and Neutron Star views, no ads, $25/$50 tiers
- Readers also urged to mark Ars as a Google "Preferred Source"