CINCINNATI (TDB) -- An e-mailer passed along this list of most-viewed items on The Cincinnati Enquirer's Web site from Jan. 27-Feb. 2. It is reportedly from an internal document. Says it was prepared by one of the Gannett Co. Inc. newpaper's assistant managing editors:
Top Stories
Cincymoms forum 535,683 views
Cinweekly – Rock n Skate 364,602 views
Cincymoms Home 123,144 views
Cinweekly – Friday at The Cadillac Ranch 93,112 views
CincyMOMS GetPublished Photo Gallery 84,671 views
Cinweekly – A moveable feast 57,439 views
Obituary database 55,985 views
Zag form 55,774 views
Cinweekly – Karaoke Night at Bronz 50,329 views
Mom, 11, a sad case 47,691 views
Most Popular Site Search Terms
Obituaries
Immigration
Giveaways
Bodies
School closings
Warshak
Patricia Corbett
Video
Photos
[UPDATE: 12:11 pm 2/9/08 -- The editor of Q City News writes about his suspicion (and it is a worthwhile read) there is ongoing fraud at the newspaper. He reacts to the data leaked to The Bellwether, and makes a case that the Enquirer could be goosing its online stats to attract advertising. He does not believe that the content could generate the reported numbers of page views. Again, click the link to read the suspicion of corporate puffery and smoke-blowing at the Gannett-owned newspaper.]
Usually when see I claims of astronomical number of readers for the Gannett-Enquirer's local web site(s) I just roll my eyes. Your post was the first list I'd seen that broke the numbers down for a single week, and attached them to actual stories. What an eye-opener.
ReplyDeleteThe absurdity of the claim that, for example, 50,329 readers might have bothered to look at CiN Weekly's photo gallery "Karaoke Night at Bronz" is comical. But it reveals a deeper problem. Gannett's huge overstatement of readership for nonsense like this story is how the Gannett-Enquirer renders the value of others' efforts at honest news gathering as nearly worthless.
Other providers of independent local news have to compete for advertisers against the Gannett-Enquirer's fantasy numbers. Ask someone at CityBeat (a local paper that local people actually read) how well that's working out for them.
Thanks for calling out the Gannett-Enquirer by attaching hard numbers to story titles so people who care about local news can at least try to show out how out-of-whack the Gannett-Enquirer's reader numbers really are.
And thanks for the link!