Here's an idea to clean up your homepage- listen to the very people you're trying to reach. Advertising is a dead medium, si people e don't want unwanted products. ideas or fake stories (that are really ads) shoved down their throats.
You mention that you have introduced a more 'slicker, more modern & more intuitive' homepage. Yet its full of annoying ads (that repeat constantly), looks exactly the same as every other web page (try looking at alcohol sites; they're the fun ones) and if it's so intuitive, why hasn't it figured out we're all telling ads to 'take a jump'?!
Try taking a page from Flipboard- minimise the ads & stories and- dare i say it, LET US DECIDE what we want to see/read.

But no one will read this, nothing will change, and you will keep on being the anchor on the web you are; thank for tying me have my 2 minutes.