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Link-baiting v. Integrity

June 30, 2008

In the May ABCs – the Audit Bureau of Circulations measurement of traffic to the newspaper websites – the Daily Mail’s website surged ahead of its main rivals (the Telegraph and Guardian) to take the top spot with 18.7 million unique users. The Independent on Sunday has a piece on this development here, and it appears that there is both more, and less, to it than meets the eye.

More, in the sense that the charms of Ronaldo’s girlfriend, Nereida Gallardo, along with many other staples of the worlds of OK! and Hello!, have suddenly started featuring prominently on the Mail’s home page, occupying space that would be unlikely to be theirs in the print form of the paper (today, for example, you can click through to ‘Tennis glamour girl Ana’s sizzling photoshoot’).

And less, given that the dark and subtle art of link-baiting is thought to be another major factor in the increased figures. The Mail appears to have picked up a lot of traffic from the likes of Digg, Fark, Druge and Perez Hilton, all of which will unhesitatingly link, and link again, to stories about celebrities not wearing many clothes.

Thus the Mail’s figures may be explained by a largely US audience who may never return to the site again. Moreover, it is striking, upon a trawl around the Mail’s site to investigate the extent of its devotion to Ronaldo and Gallardo, to note how little there is by way of engagement by readers. There are few comments, but comments, as much as unique user numbers, are a vital indicator of a newspaper’s success. If no one is interacting with it, it’s a fair bet that Googlebots are accounting for some of the unique users, and, moreover, that its stories are little more than ephemera.

Emily Bell, the director of digital content for The Guardian, is not persuaded by the Mail’s modus operandi. “We are not complacent,” she told The Independent. “What we do in journalistic terms is strong and we are investing in journalism. We are not about to tear up the blueprint and get in lots of picture galleries of Amy Winehouse and say ‘forget Afghanistan’.”

Could it be, for newspaper websites and blogs generally, that integrity and good writing are more likely to ensure longevity and popularity than social media sites and link-baiting? Or, put another way, what’s more salient in this post – the image of Ms Gallardo, or its debate about communication?

Picture courtesy of Mailonline.