February 14, 2012

Publish less, find more readers?

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Salon.com reports that by reducing  the amount of content it published in December and January, and by easing its dependence on aggregation, it actually increased its monthly traffic numbers. According to a report by Adrienne LaFrance at the The Nieman Journalism Lab:

In December and January, Salon published 33 percent fewer posts than it had in those same months the previous years — but it saw 40 percent greater traffic. Slashing the amount of content it published by a third, the site still logged record-high unique visitor numbers — 7.23 million at the end of January — and without any “big viral hits” that would have skewed the numbers

Editor-in-chief Kerry Lauerman says the site is relying less on aggregation because his colleagues find it time intensive and unexciting: “It’s kind of the worst of both worlds. You’re spending a lot of time on someone else’s work. You’re more motivated when you’re pursuing your own work.”

 

Kelly Burdick is the executive editor of Melville House.

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