"There are no plans of any kind, no announcement, no change in stance," he said. "What I said is something I've been saying for five years. We don't believe we need advertising in order to survive."

The combination of ultra-low overheads and massive readership would excite any media executive. And while the site does not carry any advertising, Wales admits it might. "There is a great deal of resistance to the idea, both from the community and from me. But at some point questions are going to be raised over the amount of money we are turning down," he says.

But Wales seemed to leave the doorway to ad-supported content open a crack. "The question is going to arise as to whether we could better pursue our charitable mission with the additional money [ads would bring]," he said. "We have never said there would absolutely never be ads on Wikipedia."