Loyal users will pay for watchdog journalism
Kinsey Wilson. Photo by Mary Kang/Knight Center AUSTIN, Texas -- One of the dirty little secrets in digital media is that the big numbers of page views and unique users touted by publishers are misleading at best . They overstate a publication's audience size and impact. Most visitors to a publisher's content are fly-bys : They stay for only a few seconds. And even if they stay longer than that, the vast majority come to a publisher's website only once or twice a month . These are not loyal users devoted to a brand. What is more interesting and meaningful, especially for publishers of serious news and information, is that the smaller number of loyal users -- who come frequently, linger, and read many pages -- is willing to pay for the content and other products. They identify strongly with the brand. Kinsey Wilson , editor of innovation and strategy at the New York Times , brought the point home last week at the International Symposium on Online Journalism when he mentio...