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#Gawker media selling pdf

Rather, the thinking goes, it all depends what is measured: Some metrics, like page views, incentivize the production of celebrity slide shows and other vapid content, while others, like time on a page, reward high-quality journalism. Nowadays the prevailing view is that metrics aren’t, by definition, good or bad for journalism. What does all this data mean for the production of news? In the earlier days of web analytics, editorial metrics had both enthusiastic proponents and impassioned detractors. In a 2010 New Yorker profile, founder and CEO of Gawker Media Nick Denton argued, “probably the biggest change in Internet media isn’t the immediacy of it, or the low costs, but the measurability.” 1 At a time when data analytics are increasingly valorized, we must take care not to equate what is quantifiable with what is valuable. But newsroom, analytics companies, funders, and media researchers might consider how some of journalism’s most compelling and indispensable traits, such as its social mission, are not easily measured. Efforts to improve audience analytics and to measure the impact of news are important and worthwhile.

Not everything can-or should-be counted.

Newsroom managers should consider which analytics company’s values, branding strategy, and strategic objectives best align with their own goals. When selecting an analytics service, however, it’s important to remember that analytics companies have their own business imperatives. We have a tendency to see numbers-and, by extension, analytics dashboards-as authoritative and dispassionate reflections of the empirical world.

When a news organization is choosing an analytics service, it should consider the business model and the values of the vendor.

Newsrooms should create opportunities-whether internally or by partnering with outside researchers-for reflective, deliberate thinking removed from daily production pressures about how best to use analytics. But this data is simply too powerful to implement on the fly. As a result, they tend to consult, interpret, and use metrics in an ad hoc way. Most journalists are too busy with their daily assignments to think extensively or abstractly about the role of metrics in their organization, or which metrics best complement their journalistic goals.

News organizations can benefit from big-picture, strategic thinking about analytics.

Once rankings have a prominent place on a newsroom wall or website, it can be difficult to limit their influence. It is not uncommon for journalists to become fixated on metrics that rank them or their stories, even if these are not the sole criteria by which they are evaluated.

Traffic-based rankings can drown out other forms of evaluation.

When devising internal policies for the use of metrics, newsroom managers should consider the potential effects of traffic data not only on editorial content, but also on editorial workers. Metrics inspire a range of strong feelings in journalists, such as excitement, anxiety, self-doubt, triumph, competition, and demoralization.

Metrics exert a powerful influence over journalists’ emotions and morale.

Petre offers the following key points based on her findings. Thus, researcher Caitlin Petre conducted ethnographic analysis of the role of metrics in journalism, focusing on three case studies: Chartbeat, a dominant metrics vendor Gawker Media, a newsroom intently focused on metrics and The New York Times, a legacy news outlet where metrics are currently more peripheral. The Tow Center sought to understand how the use of metrics changes reporters’ behavior and what this means for journalism.

#Gawker media selling pdf

To print or a read a PDF of this report, visit the Tow Center’s Gitbook page.Īudience metrics have become ubiquitous in news organizations, but there has been little empirical research on how the data is produced or how it affects newsroom culture and journalists’ daily work.