I Can See Clearly Now

Every Thursday, I spend the majority of my day putting together a Connecticut entertainment email for nearly 12,000 subscribers. The email is in HTML and the reason it takes so long is because I have to painstakingly hand-code almost 60 urls. This is after I make editorial decisions on which 60 items to promote.

Here’s what the ctnow.com Weekender Email looks like and [shameless plug alert] feel free to sign up for it! (I think it needs a curvy Web 2.0 redesign, but I digress…)

Anyway, the emailing software I use allows me to immediately track how many links people are clicking. So every Thursday I find myself glued to an “active tracking” window that automatically refreshes. I want to see if readers are actually receptive to the events I selected.

When I worked as a newspaper reporter from 1994-99, the only way I could tell if people were reading my stories was if they talked to me or my editors (in person, over the phone or snail mail letters) to praise or complain. It was often like working in a fog.

The immediate metrics of the web are a step forward. Now, a media company can more accurately gauge the effectiveness of a particular initative and determine what’s working and what isn’t.

It relates directly to what Time, Inc is doing with bloggers, as mentioned earlier this week on Dr. Halavais’s blog. Bloggers for Time, Inc. will be directly remunerated on the basis of their traffic.

Now, the “hardcore journalist” in me wonders if that’s fair. Is good journalism about quantity (of readers), or quality (of the writing, reporting)?

Well, the news business is still a business and if no one is reading, than that can’t be good.

The threshold for journalism is going to change – because we really aren’t working in a fog anymore.

(BTW: Its been just under an hour since I sent the email, and I’m up to 853 clicks … 859 … 866 … 868…)