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GMAT Practice Question (One of Hundreds)

An advertisement for E-News, a subscription-only online newspaper with no ads accompanying its content, argued that individuals should subscribe to E-News so as to eliminate wasted time that results from seeing and ignoring advertisements while attempting to read newspapers that feature ads.

Which of the following, if true, most severely weakens E-News' argument?

A)	Individuals who currently read only print newspapers are much less likely to enjoy a subscription news website without first learning about reading online news through a free news website.
B)	Free ad-sponsored news websites and blogs offer more content than E-News.
C)	E-News partners with other e-content providers, many of which always show numerous ads alongside their content.
D)	For regions of the country that lack adequate internet coverage, switching to an online subscription website is not logical.
E)	E-News recently announced it would sell some of its content to ad-supported websites and print newspapers.

Correct Answer: C

E-News argues that its subscription service will eliminate the presence of all ads for individuals attempting to read the news. The advertisement implies that this is appealing to news readers since it saves them time. However, there are possible problems with this argument. For example, if E-News partnered with other online content providers, who themselves served up ads, the user would not truly avoid advertisements and would still waste time "seeing and ignoring advertisements while attempting to read."

This answer pertains to enjoying reading a news website while the original argument centers on avoiding the "wasted time" that comes from seeing and ignoring advertisements.
The original argument centers around "wasted time" not volume of content. Consequently, this answer weakens a point (volume of content) that serves as no support or justification for the original argument (which is based upon "wasted time").
Since users of E-News will not be able to entirely (or perhaps even considerably) "eliminate wasted time that results from seeing and ignoring advertisements" since these ads will be part of the online newspaper reading experience through the content network, the argument that users should sign up in order "to eliminate" ads is weakened.
This answer does not weaken the crux of the original argument (i.e., avoiding ads eliminates "wasted time"). The original argument is not weakened, it is simply deemed irrelevant to a certain portion of the country.
This does not weaken the argument about the user's experience and ability to save time with E-News. The original argument pertains to signing up with E-News in order to save time and this answer does not pertain to signing up with E-News.

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