4. The mystery emerges
• Boston.com,
BostonHerald.com
complain of lowballing
• Internal counts are
three times higher
than Nielsen ratings
5. The mystery emerges
• Boston.com,
BostonHerald.com
complain of lowballing
• Internal counts are
three times higher
than Nielsen ratings
• Whose count is
accurate? Agencies’ or
content-providers’?
7. Panel-based metrics
• Nielsen and comScore
sample what sites
audience is visiting
• Afternoon traffic is
undercounted, local
sites are a challenge
8. Panel-based metrics
• Nielsen and comScore
sample what sites
audience is visiting
• Afternoon traffic is
undercounted, local
sites are a challenge
• Nielsen once gave
washingtonpost.com
10m and comScore 17m
9. comScore is now the standard
• About 2 million users
have tracking code on
their computers
10. comScore is now the standard
• About 2 million users
have tracking code on
their computers
• comScore uses polling
techniques to weight
and adjust its sample
11. comScore is now the standard
• About 2 million users
have tracking code on
their computers
• comScore uses polling
techniques to weight
and adjust its sample
• Some users may have
had code installed
without permission
13. Server-side metrics
• An actual count of
incoming traffic.
What could go wrong?
• Visitors are counted by
device. Less accurate
if they clear cookies.
14. Server-side metrics
• An actual count of
incoming traffic.
What could go wrong?
• Visitors are counted by
device. Less accurate
if they clear cookies.
• No way of separating
out robotic hits
from search engines
15. What is a unique visitor?
• Most agree it is
someone who visited
once during time span
16. What is a unique visitor?
• Most agree it is
someone who visited
once during time span
• Unique visitors per
month is most common
Internet traffic measure
17. What is a unique visitor?
• Most agree it is
someone who visited
once during time span
• Unique visitors per
month is most common
Internet traffic measure
• Other measures: return
visits, number of page
views, time spent
18. Dearth of free data
• SimilarWeb works like
comScore except its
data are more open
19. Dearth of free data
• SimilarWeb works like
comScore except its
data are more open
• Quantcast gets good
reviews from some, but
code must be installed
20. Dearth of free data
• SimilarWeb works like
comScore except its
data are more open
• Quantcast gets good
reviews from some, but
code must be installed
• Alexa, now owned by
Amazon, offers an
alternative approach
21. Was newspaper data better?
• No one knows how
many people actually
open up the paper
22. Was newspaper data better?
• No one knows how
many people actually
open up the paper
• Multipliers of “readers”
versus “subscribers”
is highly suspect
23. Was newspaper data better?
• No one knows how
many people actually
open up the paper
• Multipliers of “readers”
versus “subscribers”
is highly suspect
• Chicanery to make
numbers look higher
is not unusual
24. Is there a better way?
• Tony Haile of Chartbeat
is pushing for ad prices
based on time spent
25. Is there a better way?
• Tony Haile of Chartbeat
is pushing for ad prices
based on time spent
• The Washington Post
has adopted A/B testing
and “lead measures”
26. Is there a better way?
• Tony Haile of Chartbeat
is pushing for ad prices
based on time spent
• The Washington Post
has adopted A/B testing
and “lead measures”
• In the age of distributed
journalism, the metrics
challenge has grown
27. Credits
• Much of this presentation is based on
“Confusion Online: Faulty Metrics and the
Future of Digital Journalism,” by Lucas Graves,
John Kelly and Marissa Cluck, Tow Center for
Digital Journalism, Columbia University
Graduate School of Journalism, September
2010.
• Updated on December 6, 2016.