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The Importance of Giving Ohio.com Hits


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I was reading an article on Akron's "Serial Pooper" by Bob Dyer. In the context of the story going viral, Bob mentioned this fact:

"We have a big electronic board in the newsroom that shows which stories are being read the most on our website at that moment, as well as how long people are reading each story and where the readers are coming from (another Ohio.com story? Facebook, Twitter or Reddit? Links on other websites?)."

Just thought I'd mention that if we want more Zips coverage, we've definitely got to give Zips articles "hits" on Ohio.com!

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Good find, B&G. I had mentioned in another thread about ABJ/Ohio.com Zips vs. Browns coverage that with online newspapers there's no more BSing about who's reading what stories. The ABJ knows exactly how many hits each story on their website is getting, and the subjects that get the most hits get the most future coverage. Complaining about lack of Zips coverage on Ohio.com is wasted energy. It's all about the numbers. The electronic board in the news room with instantaneous results shows how sophisticated it's getting.

It would be productive if we posted links on ZipsNation to every Zips story on Ohio.com and tried to attract more people to ZipsNation to click on those links. Increased traffic for Zips stories on Ohio.com would result in more coverage of Zips athletics. Of course the more we complain about Zips coverage on Ohio.com, the less likely people are to bother to go there to read the coverage, which in turn will result in even less coverage and even more complaining. Vicious circle.

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They have a pay wall now and I'm not paying for that crap product

+1

I'm curious to know how their pay wall is working out for them. I know I defer to cleveland.com over them whenever possible because of that very reason. ABJ has a few very good journalists. Too bad that whoever is running ship is holding them back.

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They have a pay wall now and I'm not paying for that crap product

+1. I used to hold the ABJ at rather high regard. Now I don't. Messing up Zips Ads, messing up scores, who the opponent was, who future opponents are, and the dates of the game...makes the ABJ a rag.

Also: I still don't agree with the contention that the more we read the articles, the more they'll produce them. No, the more you write QUALITY content, the more people will read it. Why would anyone on ZNO read the ABJ (and pay for it) when our members are better writers, researchers, investigators (etc) than someone who gets paid to do it? I learn more about the Akron Zips, their history, their internal struggles on ZNO than I EVER have in the ABJ. It's a rag.

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Does the pay wall still exist? For some reason I'm able to read as many stories as I want on the ohio.com site.

I think everyday you're able to read a certain amount for free? I have no idea...I know I've been locked out before because of the paywall. Though: I've stopped reading the ABJ because over the last 5+years of reading it, I've seen it slowly devolve from the Best Paper in NEO to a rag like all the rest.

Am I a lil bitter? :P

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That right there speaks for itself how dumb it was in the first place. (I believe I called it too).

Well said! :bow:

So I just went to their website to checkout to see if there were any new articles on Zips FB, you know...to give them viewership...Annoying popup ad that when you click "close" takes you to the ad website. Finally get it closed, try to click on sports: Zips, but the drop down menu kept phasing in and out because of the imbeded KIA ad at the top. People don't want to go to a website to be bombarded with ads that block you from getting where you want to go.

But does anyone here work in the advertising industry who can answer a question for me? When you place an ad in the print form, you're not being guaranteed anything. You're paying for the access to that media's audience. You don't know if people are actually responding or reading it. It's based on access, not guarantee.

Yet internet advertising doesn't work that way. It works on clicks and "views". Why? Doesn't the same principal apply?

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ABJ rarely provides anything of substance related to the Zips. The reliability isn't great either - the article that made KD seem to be happy to see Diggs, Harney, and Treadwell gone is a classic example of their taking quotes out of context to build their own narrative. I'd suggest giving them 0 hits and using ZN and HustleBelt your full attention for MAC coverage.

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Well said! :bow:

So I just went to their website to checkout to see if there were any new articles on Zips FB, you know...to give them viewership...Annoying popup ad that when you click "close" takes you to the ad website. Finally get it closed, try to click on sports: Zips, but the drop down menu kept phasing in and out because of the imbeded KIA ad at the top. People don't want to go to a website to be bombarded with ads that block you from getting where you want to go.

But does anyone here work in the advertising industry who can answer a question for me? When you place an ad in the print form, you're not being guaranteed anything. You're paying for the access to that media's audience. You don't know if people are actually responding or reading it. It's based on access, not guarantee.

Yet internet advertising doesn't work that way. It works on clicks and "views". Why? Doesn't the same principal apply?

You are correct about print newspaper advertising offering more general access to that media's audience. You can do some targeting by requesting ad placement in the section most likely to reach a target audience, i.e. sports section for certain demographic males and family or society section for certain demographic females. But results measurements of print ad effectiveness are extremely hard to come by.

Internet advertising is similar in that it can be targeted to pages containing editorial content that appeals to specific demographics. Internet offers the advantage of knowing exactly how many people click on those pages and were exposed to the ads. But it still doesn't tell what percentage of page viewers paid any attention to the ads unless viewers actually click on the ads. Even then a percentage of viewers didn't really want to read the ad but clicked it by mistake. In fact some viewers may become so annoyed by popup ads obscuring content that they may be less likely to be attracted to that advertiser. It drives some to employ popup blockers that eliminate some ads.

Print advertising has been around for centuries and is pretty well understood. Internet advertising is in its infancy and is still evolving.

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