Actually in this instance, that's not how the business transaction works. That $1.50 you pay for the paper version barely pays for distribution. Newspapers get their profit from advertising. The main problem is that internet advertising sucks. The profit is from click-thrus, not page views, but no one clicks, your eyes basically ignore the ads and you move on to the actual text. Even without an ad-blocker people know to skip the top of the page to avoid banners and stay away from the margins. That's because they are flashy and filled with crap. They contain nothing useful for the reader. Newspaper ads are different, they have more connection to you and even contain useful information. That 1/2 page ad for a local car dealer gives you a general idea of local car prices, same for the real estate ads. The supermarket ad tells you what's on sale this week and gives you coupons. Even ads for local businesses that you will never use promote name recognition and form a sort of local directory in your head keeping you current on your community. The ads in newspapers are relevant to you, they actually form a part of the content of a newspaper. Internet ads have never done that. Google tried with adsense, but it never really works unless you're a lonely man with a small penis and erectile disfunction.

Strange I don't remember this many complaints when browsers started including pop up blockers.

I'm not sure about others, but in NY we have taxes at the state, county and city level.

This seems like a case of the states trying to make a grab for more money without upping their own taxes.

Catalogs have never had to pay out of state sales tax unless the company owned land in the state they were shipping to, like a warehouse, store or distribution center.

NY has been pushing this idea for a while now. Most people don't realize that NYS now demands sales tax on any item purchased out of state for use or consumption within NYS. They passed the law a couple years ago without much fanfare and buried it in a small easily overlooked section of the NYS tax return. I imagine it's just lurking there until they find an easy way to track incoming parcels from amazon and QVC.

So if you walk over the border to Pennsylvania, buy a candybar and don't eat it till you return home to NYS, you're supposed note that purchase on your tax return and pay the applicable sales tax on April 15th.