If clicks drove coverage at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans —a more realistic prospect than it’s ever been—what kind of publication would we get? We can look at past traffic and get a rough answer: In a doomsday scenario, we would read only about sex, sports, crime, and more crime. The most clicked on stories in the month of June, for instance, included the following headlines: Child among five shot (#1 most viewed); Gretna attorney accused of masturbating in law firm associate’s office (#4); Tattoos help Mississippi deputies identify dismembered remains of Jaren Lockhart (#7); and The deadline to sign Drew Brees to a long-term deal is looming (#13).
The 100 most popular stories that month included no coverage of education, health, immigration, or housing. Less than 10 percent of the stories were even tangentially related to social or public policy. Only two addressed a serious political debate (and one of the two probably made the list simply because Drew Brees was mentioned in the headline). But the stories documented murder, mayhem, and mischief in abundance. As a chronicle of human cruelty and misfortune, the list was nothing short of sublime.
It’s not unsurprising, of course, that sensational and tawdry headlines, pictures, and stories attract eyeballs, both online and in print. The tabloid formula goes back decades, and modern outlets like The National Enquirer and Gawker have used it to their advantage for years. More traditional, community-oriented newspapers have historically taken a different, and more paternalistic, approach. They have always covered their fair share of sports, crime, and fluff, but they include vegetables in addition to dessert, aiming for the balanced meal.
NOLA Media Group, the company that will run both the Times-Picayune (once it converts to publishing three times a week) and the expanded nola.com website, has not said explicitly how, or whether, clicks will drive coverage. And the Times-Picayune leadership has said in meetings with reporters that they will not abandon entirely subjects that fail to attract many eyeballs online (although the layoffs decimated the ranks of the news reporters and left the sports and entertainment departments comparatively intact).
But company officials have made it clear a major goal of the revamped website will be maximizing pageviews: The site, we are told, will emphasize sports and entertainment coverage as well as perpetual churn of stories on nola.com’s homepage. Based on new job descriptions, many reporters in the editorial department (renamed “Content”) will post several updates a day on the homepage’s breaking news blog (renamed “The River”), where some will be read by an editor (renamed “Quality Assurance Producer”) after the fact.
In the not-too-distant future, reporters’ bonuses, and possibly even part of their compensation, will likely be tied to a not-year-defined set of Internet metrics. A precedent established at the MLive Media Group in Michigan, the first Advance Publications property to go digital, offers a telling clue: In Michigan, reporters say their bonuses are based on the number of stories they post, the number of times they engage with readers through the comment stream, and the number of pageviews their stories receive. Pageview and posting goals are developed individually and do reflect reporters’ starting point and beat. Both the Detroit Lions reporter and the schools reporter might strive to increase average story clicks by 25 percent, for instance. For the sportswriter, however, that translates into thousands more clicks per story than the education writer, whose articles will never attract as many eyeballs. And reporters say they have been told to continue to prioritize quality journalism and not simply chase clicks. But whenever the well-trafficked Drudge Report picks up a story, there’s elation in the newsroom (renamed “the Hub”).
The most viewed stories on nola.com, by topic, during the month of June. The data for this graphic and story were compiled in late June and early July. The results can change over time.
Seems to me that intelligent journalism/media was supposed to be one of the strongest voices of our democracy. However, just as has happened in politics, the almost untouchable American ideals of profit and capitalism are managing to silence the majority of what really needs to be said and heard. It is my most sincere hope that somewhere, probably not in America, someone in a position to make a difference will recognize that profit and popularity does not necessarily indicate real value.
#1 Posted by Brett, CJR on Fri 20 Jul 2012 at 11:29 AM
This is a scary but not unexpected development. Television for now remains the primary source of news for many Americans, but a typical newscast isn't any better than what you're describing from that website. TV is a wonderful police scanner, a fine community bulletin board, a great scoreboard and a good place for weather reports. In terms of giving readers, viewers, web searchers, et al (ad naueam?) what they want rather than what they need, however, while one has the example of 60 Minutes, I suspect you could count on one hand the number of other documentary programs that are as informative on what the public needs to know. And even 60 Minutes has to do its share of tabloid fare, albeit nowhere near as much as one may find elsewhere on the small screen. New Orleans had Katrina. Now it has this. Good luck to the people of New Orleans.
#2 Posted by Patrick Cloonan, CJR on Fri 20 Jul 2012 at 01:39 PM
The click model is contaminating news judgment everywhere. A more in-depth look might be to consider that the corporatist relationship between the big media and Republican Party and the monied elites in this country want to eviscerate the population's ability to think. Just look at the Texas Republican Party platform.
#3 Posted by George Schwarz, CJR on Fri 20 Jul 2012 at 06:05 PM
Sarah, thanks for a thoughtful and illuminating essay. I do not, however, share your fears about clicks driving coverage. People have been worrying about shallow sensationalism in the news for as long as I can remember. I had an editor who used to respond that "news" is most often the very good or the very bad, and unfortunately the very bad is easier to find.
The top-clicked news story of this weekend, surely of the month and most likely for this year is the tragedy in Aurora. Every major news outlet is pouring tons of resources into it, and the TP fronted a turn-of-the-screw development in it again today although its connection to New Orleans is questionable. Honestly, if the Number 1 story "Child Among Five Shot" refers to the Briana Banks slaying, that should be the Number 1, in my opinion. It was a real, horrific tragedy that I hope that the media won't let our city forget.
Crime (and sports and celebs) is what people read. Let's be honest: it pays for the "vegetables." It doesn't mean we stop producing the education coverage -- it just means we have to work harder to make those other beats more relevant to our readers, just as we always have. The format isn't the problem here -- the problem is the unnecessary decision of your corporate parent to let go of so many talented journalists who cover social issues and crime. But the format change doesn't demand the reduction in force. Thanks again for your stand against both.
#4 Posted by Robert Morris, CJR on Sun 22 Jul 2012 at 01:16 PM
Robert, I enjoy what you do at the Messenger, but I could not disagree with you more. Your example about your former editor saying "news" is either good or bad is understandable, but did he say it was right? And which newspaper what this? And is that guy still in the game? A newspaper – and let's include news websites in this – aren't supposed to be a reflection of the most popular stories, but the ones with the most impact to people's lives. It's also letting readers know, hey, because of our training and connection to you, this is what we believe you need to know to impact your life and decisions and discussions today. It's a balance – hopefully struck by people with enough training and understanding of events and what they mean to the community – of what readers should know and need to know. That is not always what the want to know. It's also in balance with the bottom line. No one says newspapers shouldn't provide a little dessert after the entree, but the T-P's change to an online sports and entertainment focus is dessert before the entree and, let's face it, having dessert first spoils your appetite for the main course, which will get thrown out. The newspaper – and let's include news websites here – should be reports. Just like baseball, if it were easy, everyone would do it. If newspapers – and let's include news websites here – pander, then they pour gasoline on the fire of dumbing down the population. Journalism is the opposite of that. Thomas Jefferson said, "An informed citizenry is the bulwark of a democracy." He was a pretty smart guy. What will happen to democracy if your website, the T-P's and others take the TMZ approach? It will erode democracy. We will all lose more rights. We will all lose freedom, such as we have it these days. The Times-Pic, no matter what form, is actively engaged right now in the dumbing down of the citizenry. The ONLY reason people even care about the T-P's decision to cut staff and the numbers of days it prints is because of the good work it has done, not because of its sports and entertainment coverage. Under its new format, the good work the T-P has done would never have seen the light of print. The T-P was a lousy newspaper for most of its existence, then went on a 20-year commitment to news that made it matter and then prepared it to take on Hurricane Katrina and the federal levee failures. That was its shining moment and after it changes to three days a week and an online focus with nary the staff to competently cover news, nothing like that will be possible. The T-P is consciously going back to lousy. Rightly, the respect it garnered over that 20-year span is already evaporating and, by corporate choice without regard for mission (which I believe is a death-knell), it's making itself irrelevant. The newspaper is already engaged in lying to its readers by spinning that the changes will result in a better product. How does anyone respect lying? Newspapers aren't sensational every day. Good newspapers are just like life. Good newspapers help make sense of life and the world around us. Life is not all sports and entertainment. Click-based or not, this is what the T-P is serving up. A quota-based system of information gathering dilutes the information simply because you're forced to feed the machine and the reporter himself or herself isn't given the opportunity to investigate and understand it either. Because the T-P owners and managers don't want to do the hard work of journalism – which should be seen as a very blue-collar occupation – they and we will all suffer for it. Not only do we and will we not like what the T-P owners and managers are doing, but I promise you even the "content" people once known as "reporters" who are doing it won't like it, but they have to put bread on the table, too. And they have to feed the machine. And we all suffer. (Hey CJR, I'm over 600 words, but less than 4,000 characters. It’s like Twitter – on steroids. Well done think piece, Ms. Carr.)
#5 Posted by Rudy at The NO Levee Newspaper, CJR on Tue 24 Jul 2012 at 11:30 AM
New Orleans is a great city, full of life in a way no other American city can even approach.
I love it.
I lived there for three years and visit often
It is also the "conservative"/republican ideal come to nearly full fruition.
No social safety net, absurdly low property and income taxes, a crippling sales tax on everything, including groceries, meds, clothing ; "if the poor want help, let them pay for it themselves" policy come to life.
With no money for the schools, it's one of America's dumbest cities, bar none.
Add to this heady mix a chain-owned newspaper that was the laughingstock of the community.
Its social pages and woefully incompetent music writers (in New Orleans!) were, and are, the stuff of legend.
There is no better choice for a place to begin the physical end game for the newspaper industry.
The Newhouses are many things.
Dumb ain't one of them.
#6 Posted by Elliot, CJR on Fri 27 Jul 2012 at 08:06 AM
Elliot-
"Stupid is as stupid does" , so I agree to some- but the rest reads like a hipsters YELP review.
Exploited again, and facing another crisis, with how we react impacting those who treat us like a Colony.
I'm sick of being treated like 3/5ths of a person, when we make 1/3 of your energy and loose a football field of our Coast every 38 minutes.
If ever a region needed a strong and independent press corp. it's us and we get a Robber Barron Newhouse.
We need your help not your YELP.
To any outsider NOLA readers who value journalism and:
http://www.spj.org/ethicscode.asp
Please support Robert Morris + others efforts-
http://uptownmessenger.com/2012/07/from-the-publisher-amid-a-local-media-sea-change-please-help-uptown-messenger-grow/
Finally- I am not not, and should not be considered an expert on this so I ask-- -did any DE-regulation of the news industry cause me loose my morning paper?
Best from Freret,
Andy Brott
www.brottworks.com
#7 Posted by Andy Brott, CJR on Sun 29 Jul 2012 at 02:13 PM
Many very good points, Ms. Carr. I look forward to a long-form publication on post-k new orleans education experiments from you any week/month/year now!
I would recommend people read this wonderful analytical 6- part series called "The Murder of the Times-Picayune" which cites the above article in the last part: http://nolaanarcha.blogspot.com/2012/07/murder-of-times-picayune-part-one.html
Enjoy!
#8 Posted by mg, CJR on Mon 13 Aug 2012 at 03:46 PM