

Journalists Don't Look At Traffic Numbers - jhonovich
http://blog.hubspot.com/opinion/journalists-dont-look-at-traffic-numbers

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orlandob
I've been listening to a relevant audiobook lately: Trust Me, I'm Lying:
Confessions of a Media Manipulator by Ryan Holiday.

In it, he speaks about his role in manipulating the smaller blogs with over-
the-top stories (read: PR stunts), which are then "traded up the chain", used
as sources for larger blogs, eventually making their way to the national
media.

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jhonovich
I find this attitude bizarre. How can they know what their audience is
interested in or not?

I agree that writing silly thinks like "Top 5 Cute Cats That Are Friends With
Justin Bieber" to get traffic is absurd, but you need to know where your
readers are most interested among genuine topics of interest.

~~~
sp332
Why do they care what the audience is interested in? The Verge writers get to
write about what they think is interesting. It's their site, after all.

Anyway, they didn't say _no one_ looks at the numbers. A leader could still
direct the journalists to cover certain topics without turning them into
traffic whores.

