Sam Whitmore on the Tyranny of Page Views and SEO
Journalists have been complaining lately about the pressure to generate page views. Such pressure is not new. But it’s intensifying. It’s now a luxury for a reporter to write a story about an obscure but important topic. That used to be a job requirement. Now it’s a career risk.
Example: let’s say an interesting startup has a new and different idea. Many reporters now won’t touch it because (a) the story won’t generate page views, and (b) few people search on terms germane to that startup. Potential SEO performance is now a key factor in what gets assigned.
Two reporters from two different publications this month both told us the same thing: if you want to write a story on an interesting but obscure topic, you had better feed the beast by writing a second story about the iPad or Facebook or something else that delivers page views and good SEO. It’s almost like a musician who has to play weddings and bar mitzvahs in order to play something more satisfying. It has come to this.
Seriously! Writers never had to whore out to pay the bills before the internet came along!
True Fact: Before the Web, newsmagazine writers only did stories about things that no one had ever heard of (or even cared about!).
That was a golden age, my friends.
You know why this happens: Pageviews = Ad Impressions, so you get paid more by having more pageviews.
Solution (you already know the solution): Change the business model.
But, (most) publishers can’t afford to do that.
And (most) banner-buying-firms like their CPM rate negotiations and their CTR reports just fine.
And the machine continues to devour itself.