Hewitt on Metrics for Journalists

...In today's Washington Post, E.J. Dionne has another howler that I suspect will draw far fewer readers than [conservative pundit Bill] Bennett, as consumers of op-ed journalism migrate to serious writers in the blogopshere as opposed to tenured scribblers who can actually toss off a sentence that begins: "In the wake of President Bush's narrow reelection victory..." and a line that reads in part "now the Republicans are moving to weaken Social Security." Every publisher in America ought to be asking their internet techies for comprehensive stats on viewership of columnists via the web. Does Dionne score 1,00 readers, 10,000, or 10 million? Compared with, say, Charles Krauthammer, do Dionne's tired cliches justify his salary in terms of readers he brings to the Post's web site? This can now be measured --traffic is a very definite thing. Shareholders have a right to demand that the company in which they are invested not subsidize silliness that doesn't bring any readers to the game. There are plenty of fine lefty columnists out there --this isn't a call for purely market driven commentary, though surely shareholders should want to know if their products underrepresent the opinions that draw viewers to their internet editions. But deadwood is deadwood, and traffic statistics can diagnose dead wood in an afternoon. It may be that Dionne draws a crowd, but wouldn't those numbers be interesting to view? Don't hold your breath, though. MSM believes in accountability for other institutions, not its own tenured elites...

Hewitt on Metrics for Journalists