News sites are trading in on running short term, irrelevant ads to mass audiences, a process that is devaluing journalism and ignoring the most devoted audiences who are visiting via social media.
That’s just one of many conclusions in “The Story So Far,” a report produced by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School.
The report is not a how-to guide to making online money; rather, it aims to tell the story of what’s happening right now in digital media. You will gain all sorts of insight into the inner workings of digital news organizations, how some are moving ahead and why some fell desperately behind.
We’re interested most in what the report says about social media. And here, the news is encouraging:
“Vadim Lavrusik, former community manager at social media site Mashable, says that “readers who come through social are far different in their behaviors. They tend to view more articles on average and stick around the site longer.” Facebook and Twitter visitors spent 29 percent more time on Mashable.com, he said, and viewed 20 percent more pages than visitors arriving via search engines.” (Page 32)
This matches with our previous reports that social media’s influence in driving traffic is growing. However the value of Huge Page Views, the report writes, trades short-term financial hits for long-term success.
“By chasing after large audiences rather than deeply engaged ones, he says, news organizations are sacrificing advertising revenue.” (Page 25)
“Large companies want to make mass purchases of ads; they won’t deal individually with a host of small sites. But the chase for traffic has put news organizations on a sugar high of fat audiences and thin revenue. It has also devalued their journalism, as they have resorted to such tactics as celebrity photo slideshows to boost search-driven traffic.” (Pages 34-35)
The report also notes that sites need to rely on social media and not just SEO to bring in loyal readers and viewers. There are a lot of examples in here of how media companies have succeeded by evolving and how embracing social media brings in the most loyal audiences – the people who advertisers should desire most.
The report’s writers, Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave and Lucas Graves are to be lauded for showing us how things stand right now and how we got here.