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Never trust statistics
By adamg on Tue, 01/27/2009 - 2:50pm
This report would make you think boston.com was having some issues - of the ten largest newspaper-based Web sites in the U.S. it was the only one to show a drop in traffic for December as compared to the year before.
But as a Globie graciously informs me (graciously because my original headline on this post was "As if the Globe didn't have enough problems"), the number is misleading: boston.com had unusually high traffic in December, 2007 because of that whole 19-0 Patriots/Super Bowl thing (remember those days?).
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Comments
Is it more or does my UH
Is it more or does my UH front page keep morphing?
Ah, you caught me in mid-edit
I originally posted something snarky about declining page views at boston.com. Then I had to rewrite the post because, while technically true, there's a very good reason for the drop and it doesn't have anything to do with any issues at the site, as the post now explains.
Globie
Is a Globie a kind of journalism award in Boston? Is there a red carpet for that?
Well on one side you got
Well on one side you got called out for being snarky...
The good news is someone at the Globe caught your page within minutes of your posting it. Thats gotta make you feel important lol
I'd wager it's not the first
I'd wager it's not the first time they caught it. It's probably just that the topic (Globe standing in the media-financial complex) warranted immediate action. I mean, as I understand it, the Flaherty mayoral announcement video came out of the bag here on Universal Hub (because why would anyone at any of Boston's three dailies have an RSS feed for YouTube videos tagged "Boston"?). And then there was the cruiser/stroller contretemps ... and the new extra-loud "Rumbler" sirens on some police cars ... and probably a half-dozen others in 2008. The editors and reporters cull it for news, they just don't weigh in under their true names -- that's a stakeholder's move.
Yep, the Globe heard about Flaherty here
As noted in this story.
It's always cool to get something first, but, to be honest, one needs to give the Globe - and its 300-person newsroom - some credit. They still break news and to a large extent define the public discourse around here. Just recently, look at the Dianne Wilkerson interview, the Vitale-helping-DiMasi-relatives story and the Spotlight stuff on Partners HealthCare.
And maybe it's my imagination, but they look like they're going to be devoting some actual resources to the 2009 elections.
OK, back to being cranky. Did Adrian Walker's column today really say anything new about Sal DiMasi that Yvonne Abraham hadn't said yesterday?
19? You mean the old club song?
I don't know what you're talking about. All I remember is the Patriots losing to Colts and when I woke up it was time for the 2008 player draft.
good blogging practice
You posted something, accepted that it might be unfair, then quickly changed the headline and explained why. I've seen blogs that correct an error by deleting while not explaining -- as if to pretend they never erred. What you did was the more honorable thing. As someone who started his own blog just last month, I'll remember this example.
Bad blogging practice
You both might be interested in this one.
The WSJ Rewrites History
Most of the bloggers/writers
Most of the bloggers/writers on www.slate.com do it right, its a good place to get good blogger tips. They are constantly updating, but most show you what they changed at the bottom of the page. Some of the writers also even have a compilation of all the changes they have made lately.