We hear a lot of complaints about the News website. (Ok, we make a lot of complaints about the News website.) But from March of last year to March of this year, its traffic has almost doubled, according to Nielsen.
20 comments
Keep in mind that is only a measure of “unique traffic.” It’s all well and good to have — once.
Until it becomes multiple page-views by RETURNING traffic, it might as well be a one-time only sales event at Wal-Mart. And throwing up 1,347 new DMN blogs in the past 12 months certainly must have helped garner those “uniques.”
@ 4:33 pm on April 23, 2008
Someone needs to double Rod Dreher’s pay. Surely his ’storm the castle’ columns and the resultant ‘reader’ fallout is single-handedly skewing the stats.
@ 4:35 pm on April 23, 2008
Yes, it seems that Mr. Dreher’s blog topics are the most poular too. The DMN has too many blogs, thus too much time to keep up with all the subjects. Its like going to Blockbuster and wanting to find say, “3:10 to Yuma” and you don’t know if its going to be in Action/Adventure, Comedy, Classics, Drama, or Westerns. All the other blogs have in their topics something like, “What do the readers think about…..” and then nobody comments. So Sad.
@ 4:44 pm on April 23, 2008
Watch out for their website. Every time I clean my computer due to slow performance, it is full of Belo. And never provide them with your email address — the first time I did registering for an archives search, I started receiving countless spam.
@ 4:47 pm on April 23, 2008
Rawlins, Rod is ok if you like your journalism yellow.
@ 4:55 pm on April 23, 2008
A lot of factors have contributed to this, including:
1. The death of cowboysplus.com
2. The increase in blogs and blog traffic
3. Internal changes, including an increased presence on search engines
4. Deals with Yahoo! that highlight dallasnews.com content to a larger audiences
5. Blogs like FrontBurner that link to and discuss dn.com articles (Thanks Tristan!)
@ 5:28 pm on April 23, 2008
Lets not forget that there was kind of a big deal that happened here on March 4… Clinton, Obama, McCain etc…
It was interesting the the cron didn’t get the same lift however.
@ 5:54 pm on April 23, 2008
Ah, c’mon WWWildcat, I understand what you’re saying re: Dreher. He’s a pretty easy target these days, and certainly to a WW Wildcat. (Me? North Dallas Bulldog, but hey….). But back to Dreher…long ago in a series of emails regarding something I had aired or that ran in his paper, I realized how hard he works at thinking. Arguably too hard. But I could see that he is like that old song, “Always true to you in my fashion”. Sooner or later, Rod is always fair-minded. In his way.
I have mellowed in my maturation process, and I see good (and fairly often bad) in pretty much anyone. Personally, I think Rod sometimes tosses a grenade into a pond to see what blows out from the lower depths. That said, Dreher is also, as a writer, like Texas weather… Meaning if you hated this, you might like his next piece. Stay tuned.
@ 5:55 pm on April 23, 2008
Don’t forget, the website counters may not have gotten the memo about turning off the CHPs… What’s that? Surely you remember the CHPs — Circulation Helper Programs. You know, the universe where 2 equals 4 and 4 equals 20 and 20 equals a big payback to overbilled advertisers….
@ 5:57 pm on April 23, 2008
Rawlins, maybe we shall see you at a football game cheering your Bulldogs (incidentally your principal is Eduardo Hernandez wWw ‘92 — you know, one of those people Rod Dreher says can’t get an education at Woodrow).
I would say to Rod the words of Martin Fischer: “Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.” But he didn’t exactly pile up facts in his excoriations.
If he is fair-minded, we shall ultimately win him over to Woodrow.
Suppose the surge might be in direct proportion with the decline in circulation?
mike
@ 7:57 pm on April 23, 2008
Peterk, Alexa’s numbers are suspect in general because of their methodology – for a long time they relied solely on a toolbar only available on IE to track numbers. So, they were only getting a small subset of the audience, and even then they had significantly more downtime than most major websites. More here: http://gigaom.com/2006/11/21/alexa-down/
I agree with “former dallasnews.com editor” – in addition to the opening up of Cowboys content for free, you can tell from the way they’ve been writing their headlines in recent months that they have become very Search Engine Optimization-oriented. That plus other tactics (targeted advertising, etc.) undoubtedly are helping their numbers.
@ 10:21 pm on April 23, 2008
1 + 1 = 2. That’s doubling also.
I bet you that doubling doesn’t include epileptics that seize whenever they see how loud/flashy some of the pages are.
@ 6:19 am on April 24, 2008
We can also bring a second data point in here – Decherd’s letter. If you can make it through the novel – it does say uniques are up quite a bit, while page views are up slightly.
This lends creedence to the effect being related to SEO and other similar traffic. Lots of new people, and not a lot of engagement.
Bill has it right that repeat rate is very important here, and spamboy has it right that I personally doubt they are getting much of that with the adtastic experience they offer.
@ 8:35 am on April 24, 2008
The DMN needs to work on the submission process. I just went through three rejections for not typing code right and gave up. Then I see comment posted twice! It is awkward at best.
@ 8:43 am on April 24, 2008
The many views of the many DMN blogs are like the many views of a many car fatal disaster on one of our major thoroughfares.
Many people cannot help but look…once.
Emilio
@ 8:51 am on April 24, 2008
Let’s stop commenting on Wick’s original observation and resume the Rod-Dreher-as-punching-bag thread that was so perspicuously started a few posts back. It’s the exact right message at the exact right time.
Why pick on Rod Dreher? Because it is Damned Fun. Why is it Damned Fun, you ask? People, I’m going to say what everybody thinks but no one will come out and proclaim: It is because his face is earnest yet infinitely smug. And that makes you want to punch it. It is because he looks wimpy yet sports a stubble beard — which serves as a tidy summation of his prose, as well. And that makes you want to punch it.
I want to punch it. I want to punch Rod Dreher’s earnest yet infinitely smug face. Like right now I mean!
Steve Blow’s face you don’t want to punch so much. No: You’d rather pitch eggs at it from an invisible perch until he succumbs to blind rage and confusion. And just when he has cleaned himself up and regained his composure, do it again — baffling and enraging him.
@ 10:28 am on April 24, 2008
Señor Daniel, do not write off our own bearded Flannery O’Connor so swiftly.
As this article studiously notes “When O’Connor was five she taught a chicken to walk backwards, and it was this that led to her first experience of being a celebrity.”
We can only pray Señor Dreher (how his name sighs like the grave!) repeats this miracle of his own debut while we are watching, and, indeed, it is surely this anticipation that is driving the many DMN blog hits as well.
Emilio
@ 11:59 am on April 24, 2008
“Peterk, Alexa’s numbers are suspect in general because of their methodology – for a long time they relied solely on a toolbar only available on IE to track numbers.”
well I use it with Firefox. is there a new article? my point was that at least there is other information out there. if one looks at the comparison graphs you see a large spike or upswing for the DMN. why? what for?
I’m a nut for statistics and data, so I look for all types of sources. Depending upon just one source such as Nielsen or Alexa can be injurious to your analysis, but if one looks at the data from different sources you can get a better fuller picture
@ 12:29 pm on April 24, 2008
FrontBurner® launched in March 2003, the first blog in Dallas run by a media organization. This is where the editors of D Magazine come to waste a tremendous amount of time.
20 comments
Keep in mind that is only a measure of “unique traffic.” It’s all well and good to have — once.
Until it becomes multiple page-views by RETURNING traffic, it might as well be a one-time only sales event at Wal-Mart. And throwing up 1,347 new DMN blogs in the past 12 months certainly must have helped garner those “uniques.”
Someone needs to double Rod Dreher’s pay. Surely his ’storm the castle’ columns and the resultant ‘reader’ fallout is single-handedly skewing the stats.
Yes, it seems that Mr. Dreher’s blog topics are the most poular too. The DMN has too many blogs, thus too much time to keep up with all the subjects. Its like going to Blockbuster and wanting to find say, “3:10 to Yuma” and you don’t know if its going to be in Action/Adventure, Comedy, Classics, Drama, or Westerns. All the other blogs have in their topics something like, “What do the readers think about…..” and then nobody comments. So Sad.
Watch out for their website. Every time I clean my computer due to slow performance, it is full of Belo. And never provide them with your email address — the first time I did registering for an archives search, I started receiving countless spam.
Rawlins, Rod is ok if you like your journalism yellow.
A lot of factors have contributed to this, including:
1. The death of cowboysplus.com
2. The increase in blogs and blog traffic
3. Internal changes, including an increased presence on search engines
4. Deals with Yahoo! that highlight dallasnews.com content to a larger audiences
5. Blogs like FrontBurner that link to and discuss dn.com articles (Thanks Tristan!)
Lets not forget that there was kind of a big deal that happened here on March 4… Clinton, Obama, McCain etc…
It was interesting the the cron didn’t get the same lift however.
Ah, c’mon WWWildcat, I understand what you’re saying re: Dreher. He’s a pretty easy target these days, and certainly to a WW Wildcat. (Me? North Dallas Bulldog, but hey….). But back to Dreher…long ago in a series of emails regarding something I had aired or that ran in his paper, I realized how hard he works at thinking. Arguably too hard. But I could see that he is like that old song, “Always true to you in my fashion”. Sooner or later, Rod is always fair-minded. In his way.
I have mellowed in my maturation process, and I see good (and fairly often bad) in pretty much anyone. Personally, I think Rod sometimes tosses a grenade into a pond to see what blows out from the lower depths. That said, Dreher is also, as a writer, like Texas weather… Meaning if you hated this, you might like his next piece. Stay tuned.
Don’t forget, the website counters may not have gotten the memo about turning off the CHPs… What’s that? Surely you remember the CHPs — Circulation Helper Programs. You know, the universe where 2 equals 4 and 4 equals 20 and 20 equals a big payback to overbilled advertisers….
Rawlins, maybe we shall see you at a football game cheering your Bulldogs (incidentally your principal is Eduardo Hernandez wWw ‘92 — you know, one of those people Rod Dreher says can’t get an education at Woodrow).
I would say to Rod the words of Martin Fischer: “Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.” But he didn’t exactly pile up facts in his excoriations.
If he is fair-minded, we shall ultimately win him over to Woodrow.
not sure about Nielsen but I enjoy looking at this
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/dallasnews.com
to see what their traffic really looks like
this one shows it compared to the WSJ.com
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details/dallasnews.com
Suppose the surge might be in direct proportion with the decline in circulation?
mike
Peterk, Alexa’s numbers are suspect in general because of their methodology – for a long time they relied solely on a toolbar only available on IE to track numbers. So, they were only getting a small subset of the audience, and even then they had significantly more downtime than most major websites. More here:
http://gigaom.com/2006/11/21/alexa-down/
I agree with “former dallasnews.com editor” – in addition to the opening up of Cowboys content for free, you can tell from the way they’ve been writing their headlines in recent months that they have become very Search Engine Optimization-oriented. That plus other tactics (targeted advertising, etc.) undoubtedly are helping their numbers.
1 + 1 = 2. That’s doubling also.
I bet you that doubling doesn’t include epileptics that seize whenever they see how loud/flashy some of the pages are.
We can also bring a second data point in here – Decherd’s letter. If you can make it through the novel – it does say uniques are up quite a bit, while page views are up slightly.
This lends creedence to the effect being related to SEO and other similar traffic. Lots of new people, and not a lot of engagement.
Bill has it right that repeat rate is very important here, and spamboy has it right that I personally doubt they are getting much of that with the adtastic experience they offer.
The DMN needs to work on the submission process. I just went through three rejections for not typing code right and gave up. Then I see comment posted twice! It is awkward at best.
The many views of the many DMN blogs are like the many views of a many car fatal disaster on one of our major thoroughfares.
Many people cannot help but look…once.
Emilio
Let’s stop commenting on Wick’s original observation and resume the Rod-Dreher-as-punching-bag thread that was so perspicuously started a few posts back. It’s the exact right message at the exact right time.
Why pick on Rod Dreher? Because it is Damned Fun. Why is it Damned Fun, you ask? People, I’m going to say what everybody thinks but no one will come out and proclaim: It is because his face is earnest yet infinitely smug. And that makes you want to punch it. It is because he looks wimpy yet sports a stubble beard — which serves as a tidy summation of his prose, as well. And that makes you want to punch it.
I want to punch it. I want to punch Rod Dreher’s earnest yet infinitely smug face. Like right now I mean!
Steve Blow’s face you don’t want to punch so much. No: You’d rather pitch eggs at it from an invisible perch until he succumbs to blind rage and confusion. And just when he has cleaned himself up and regained his composure, do it again — baffling and enraging him.
Señor Daniel, do not write off our own bearded Flannery O’Connor so swiftly.
As this article studiously notes “When O’Connor was five she taught a chicken to walk backwards, and it was this that led to her first experience of being a celebrity.”
We can only pray Señor Dreher (how his name sighs like the grave!) repeats this miracle of his own debut while we are watching, and, indeed, it is surely this anticipation that is driving the many DMN blog hits as well.
Emilio
“Peterk, Alexa’s numbers are suspect in general because of their methodology – for a long time they relied solely on a toolbar only available on IE to track numbers.”
well I use it with Firefox. is there a new article? my point was that at least there is other information out there. if one looks at the comparison graphs you see a large spike or upswing for the DMN. why? what for?
I’m a nut for statistics and data, so I look for all types of sources. Depending upon just one source such as Nielsen or Alexa can be injurious to your analysis, but if one looks at the data from different sources you can get a better fuller picture