More proof that blogs are just a fad

Posted on March 24, 2008 by Howard Owens

There’s nothing to this blog thing, right? It’s just a lot of blow hards spouting opinions.

Well, upstart HuffingtonPost.com has surpassed DrudgeReport.com (not a blog, but more of a big media headline aggregator, and so well established now as to be pretty MSM) in traffic, and according to compete.com, is gaining on the Chicago Tribune.

(via Lost Remote)

This entry was posted in Uncategorized and tagged blogging, drudgereport, huffingtonpost, Media. Bookmark the permalink.

http://www.tricityherald.com Andy Perdue

I have no doubt “serious” blogs (vs. people complaining about their in-laws on blogger) are in for the long haul. I just wonder if HuffPost’s rapid rise in traffic has more to do with the interest in the presidential race and might level off in about eight months.

On a personal note, I love the rise of blogs because they force me to be a better journalist, to work harder so I own my niche.
http://www.howardowens.com/ Howard Owens

Andy, love your last point. There probably is something to politics driving traffic. That’s a good point. Same thing seems to be happening for newspaper sites, too, just not as steep a growth curve.
http://independent.com Randy Campbell

Compete is a thoroughly incomplete, and fatally flawed tracking mechanism for those of us unable to afford the pay-for-tracking sites. I can’t take your example as proof of anything — although the premise may have support elsewhere.

Quantcast offers a promising, not based on the almost useless Alexa (a huge component of Compete).
http://independent.com Randy Campbell

Sorry, last line should read:

Quantcast offers a promising model, not based on the almost useless Alexa (a huge component of Compete).
http://www.howardowens.com/ Howard Owens

Randy, I like quantcast a lot, but if you can show me how to produce a comparison graph like above, then that would help.

When comparing stats, you need an apples-to-apples tool. There is no 100 percent accurate web metrics tool on earth. So, as long as you’re using the same tool to compare multiple sites, then you have some clue as to their relative performance.

Quantcast fails in this case, because only HuffingtonPost.com, among the three compared here, is a “qualified” site, so its stats are more accurate than the other two on quantcast. And it ranks 77th on QuantCast, far, far above DrudgeReport.
http://shootingbynumbers.com peter

Is huffingtonpost a blog – an internet newspaper would be more apt surely.
http://www.howardowens.com/ Howard Owens

To not call it a blog is to misunderstand what a blog is. But then, most newspaper people don’t understand what a blog is.
http://www.shootingbynumbers.com peter

ok – so you have a definition of blog that includes huffingtonpost but excludes drudge?

Any chance of sharing it?
http://www.howardowens.com/ Howard Owens

I’ve written many times about what a blog is.
http://www.shootingbynumbers.com peter

didn’t think so
http://www.howardowens.com/ Howard Owens

Didn’t think what — that you can’t read? What?

If you want to troll, go some place else and do it. Next troll post gets deleted.
It’s All About Depth

Really, who cares what you call it? The point, I think, is that the Huffington Post presents a interesting model for delivering news and information online — one that newspapers would do well to understand.
http://medianation.blogspot.com Dan Kennedy

Drudge has been sucking wind for years. I’m not sure what comparing the Drudge Report to HuffPost proves. I mean, the content at HuffPost is a hell of a lot better, too.
http://www.howardowens.com/ Howard Owens

Well, then, that’s part of the point, too, isn’t it?
http://medianation.blogspot.com Dan Kennedy

Howard: I don’t know. You’re looking at the form. I’m looking at Matt Drudge versus Arianna Huffington — no contest. If she had decided to do the Arianna Report rather than HuffPost, she might still be moving ahead of Drudge. Nevertheless, there’s no doubt that the energy she brought to HuffPost by building it into a blogging community has had a lot to do with its success.

Eric Alterman has a lot of good observations about HuffPost in his New Yorker piece on newspapers.