Page views across Gannett's network of newspaper and TV station websites fell 9.8% last month from a year ago, according to a newly obtained company document that includes site-by-site traffic data for January 2008 through February 2009. The page view data are now in a two-page .pdf document, Gannett Network Traffic February 2009. Download it right now, from this very page: Just go to The Teletype Room widget in the blue rail, lower right. (That's a screenshot, inset, of the widget.)
Monday, March 16, 2009
Free! Gannettwide traffic report now available
Page views across Gannett's network of newspaper and TV station websites fell 9.8% last month from a year ago, according to a newly obtained company document that includes site-by-site traffic data for January 2008 through February 2009. The page view data are now in a two-page .pdf document, Gannett Network Traffic February 2009. Download it right now, from this very page: Just go to The Teletype Room widget in the blue rail, lower right. (That's a screenshot, inset, of the widget.)
12 comments:
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Any serious explanations as to why traffic would be down? (Please note "serious." We all know management isn't the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I can't think that they are any dumber now than they were a year ago.)
ReplyDeleteHaving worked for a Gannett web property many moons ago and now working at another successful newsy web property, having a drop in traffic is inexcusable. The web user base looking for news is growing not decreasing. I bet its a tracking issue or the fact that local gannett sites just aren't too deep anymore with all of the cuts in news gather on the print side. Just a theory.
ReplyDeleteThe campaign was being covered a year ago and people went to local papers covering the local visits, reactions, previews...
ReplyDeleteThe websites take a long time to load in. It's been explained to us that the various components are coming from numerous other servers. But go to any Gannett local newspaper site and see how long it takes for the comments to load, and then after you read five you get to go to the next page and wait. Try washingtonpost.com (which is pluck also) or nytimes.com. Their comments are there as soon as the page refreshes.
ReplyDeleteBesides not having enough local content, it's just not worth waiting for.
I found that navigating the sites is not at all intuitive like it is with some of the other news sites.
ReplyDeletePage views/visits are a crapshoot anyway. One site analytics program could say you drew 200,000 hits and the other 125,000. Between that, the sites switching over to the new version of templates and the crap being fed from 20 different servers across the country, who really knows what the stats are?
ReplyDeleteOur site's page views tanked after we switched to the ugly and slow-loading Go4 model. They should have rebounded somewhat but many times I notice that pieces of our site don't load at all.
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's the ads. Sometimes it's the horizontal navigation. I'm almost positive that at times the code you need for counting page views doesn't load either. Numerous tickets have been opened but we have no solution as of yet.
Many sites are cycling through their first year post Go4. And corporate implemented pagination (where your web stories span more than one page) right around that time, most likely to try and regain some of those losses. Hmmm...
"Any serious explanations as to why traffic would be down?"
ReplyDeleteGo to msnbc.com Go to Reuters.com. Take note of their layouts/navigation/ad spots/etc...
Now go to any of the gannett sites.
Is there really any further explanation required?
8:15 is completely right. Louisville's site traffic was growing more and more every month, until Go4 launched. It's been downhill ever since.
ReplyDeleteLouisville's Web site is the traditional corporate template, with those carousels.
ReplyDeleteThe site is ugly, cramped, confusing, boring. Unbelieveable, really, for a company allegedly committed to digital. Why is azcentral.com allowed to go its own way, offering readers an attractive, symmetrical and engaging site? Can other sites break from the mold if they want and be creative?
"Can other sites break from the mold if they want and be creative?"
ReplyDeleteYes - but only with corporate's approval... and good luck getting that.
What every site *can* do is to produce a niche section. If it attracts enough ads, corporate will immediately adopt it as a product for everyone to roll out (moms) hailing it as the next big thing that will "turn the company around".
Since they have destroyed our ability to gather news, is it really a surprise that web hits are down.
ReplyDeleteThe slow, clunky websites just make things worse.
They have cut and cut to the point where we really have nothing to offer to readers or advertisers.