Web site metrics shape editorial choices

This idea is getting a lot of attention and debate lately. It first surfaced (to my knowledge) with a story about a newspaper in Chile that drives its print content based on the number of clicks the web stories generate. An abridged version:

What news, then, did readers choose in a week when a dozen world leaders gathered in Santiago for an important trade meeting? Among the top stories: Where Secretary of State Colin Powell went to dinner and what he ate (shrimp with couscous). Also, a rundown — with a photo of scantily clad waitresses — of which delegations gave the best tips (Japan).

"This is very experimental, and it seems to be working," says Axel Pricket, a senior editor at LUN. "But," he hesitates, "how are you going to get a journalist to cover an important visit, say, of the Chinese trade minister when you know in the evening everyone will click on the story of the scantily clad girls?" No editor, he points out, is going to be able to say: "Let's showcase an issue which is totally uninteresting to the public."

"And why in the world would they want to?" roars [publisher] Edwards, dismissing arguments that it is a newspaper's role to educate and inform the public, and rolling his eyes at the charge that the media is causing a "dumbing down" of society.

It's an alarming success, says Orville Schell, dean of the graduate school of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. He says it bodes badly for the future of serious journalism. "The quest for eyeballs has soundly trumped good, sound news judgement," he says. "Market forces have established yet another beach head in the publishing world, albeit, through an online fifth column."

A similar domestic experience is described by Vlae Kershner (of SFgate.com), in this article from Grade The News.

Its a challenging dilemma, but it's important to understand the distinction between what is popular to the readers and what is important to them. Hits only tell half of the story. If you have some feedback mechanisms and participatory tools (commenting system, direct email links to reporters, etc), you can better separate what matters to readership as opposed to what's merely popular. Our reporters now are beginning to pick up on these feedback cues and follow up based on this kind of direct involvement from the readership.


Our most commented-on stories are not necessarily the ones with the most hits, and some highly trafficked stories don't generate much participation. Just because a story is highly read it doesnt mean it matters a lot in a reader's daily life.