Within the last month, both the Online Publishers Association and Newspaper Association of America released studies on various services that measure the usage of online news products. The two reports review the four major audience-measurement services: comScore Media Metrix, Nielsen//NetRatings, Scarborough Research and The Media Audit.
Understanding the audience-research services is important, but all of them contain a flaw. All of them reflect the old-media approach to the world: if you build it, they will come.
In this “Field of Dreams” approach to audience measurement, we are only interested in how many people look at our sites. If reflects the mindset that the issues traditional media face never have to do with content, but rather with proper marketing. As a result, the metrics we use reflect that thinking.
Nothing better reflects that approach than newspaper-launched blogs. A quick scan by this Chaser of 10 newspaper sites found 15 blogs. The blogs read like newspaper columns and, most shockingly, more than half of them contained only one link or no links at all. Whoa!
That misses the whole point of blogs and the blogosphere. If you are not linking to other sites, you miss one of the key aspects of what makes the blogsphere work; you might as well not even participate.
We need new stats for the converged media world. When it comes to blogging, you should be tracking how many other blogs link to your blogs and how many items are you linking to. Identify 10 other local blogs and track how frequently they link, mention or interact with your local blogs. The new media world is a conversation in which traditional media is only one part. If you aren’t linking to other sites and if you are not being linked to, you are missing the whole point.
In another study released by the OPA, a new metric for tracking a Web site’s success is put forth: SUM (site usage measure). This measure could be used for any media, but its focus is not simply on how many people look at something; it tracks the level of interaction a user has with a Web site. In essence, it’s a loyalty index for your content.
If you don’t have a loyalty index for your site, you are missing a key metric that other industries have found extremely telling: while all visitors are good for the site, some visitors are better than others.
While audience aggregation data is important, these stats are quickly becoming outdated, and they don’t reflect the way people interact with media. We need new stats, and we need them now.
Shameless plug department: Chaser HQ will be hosting a media consumption seminar titled “Blogs, Podcasts, TiVo, Wikis: New Habits of News Consumers” March 12-15, 2006. Details are posted here. The conference goal is to explore how we use all media. Apply now. Avoid the rush.
