Mediaite Launches To Server-Crashing Traffic

The hotly anticipated Mediaite.com, the media blog brainchild of consulting company Abrams Research, launched early this morning. The site, which has sections for TV, online and print media news and criticism in addition to columns from media heavy weights like former Us Weekly and Star editor-in-chief Bonnie Fuller and ex-Portfolio deputy editor Jim Impoco, was quickly inundated with readers furiously clicking -- consequently giving visitors some viewing problems. (We couldn't load the site while we were writing this post, although we got a glimpse earlier in the day.) "We were getting an overload in simultaneous users trying to access the site," explained Senior Editor Glynnis MacNicol, noting that problems started happening around 9 a.m. around the time people started getting to work. "While we were prepared for heavy traffic and had a back up CDN, we still managed to overload. Things are running right now, but slow for certain people. I think it also had to do with the type of traffic [we were getting]. People were flying around the site, spending [more time] and clicking on more pages." They are working to correct the problems right now, MacNicol added. Once visitors can access the site problem-free, the biggest draw to Mediaite will undoubtedly be its rankings of media pros. The ranks are broken down into categories: television anchors/hosts, TV reporters, media moguls, "TV Titans," magazine editors, TV pundits, newspaper/online editors, radio hosts, TV execs, print/online reporters, print/online editors and "Magazine Titans." Members of each group are ranked based on various factors such as ratings of their shows or circulation of their magazines, number of Twitter followers and the amount of "Buzz" on blogs or in print. "Titans are executives who oversee multiple shows/titles/groups within a company but are not moguls," MacNicol said, explaining their methodology a little. "Each category has its own very distinct set of ratings. Once we started listing who we wanted to include, and how we would fairly and accurately measure them, the categories sort of began to define themselves." Even MacNicol and her team aren't immune from checking up on their own rankings (yes, they are all on there) to see who's on top. And, predictably, some people have contacted the Mediaite team to ask to be added to a list or request additional affiliations, although MacNicol declined to say exactly who was itching for more recognition. With the first day in the bag, we expect big things from this headline-grabbing site. After all, it's led by some former Mediabistro staffers -- both MacNicol and Editor at Large Rachel Sklar were once FishbowlNY editors and TV blogger Steve Krakauer got his start at our sister blog TVNewser. Now they just need to iron our their server issues so we can get to spending most of our day searching for people we know, love or hate among the rankings.

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Mediaite Launches To Server-Crashing Traffic

Amanda Ernst

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Amanda Ernst