How Promotion Affects Pageviews for New York Times Web Content

By: Brian Abelson | Source OpenNews

2013 OpenNews fellow Brian Abelson has been conducting research on pageviews as a metric, and on the relationship between pageviews and promotion at the New York Times during his fellowship there. This article is cross-posted from his blog.

The Meaning of Metrics
James Watt had a problem. The man erroneously known as the creator of the steam engine (he actually just added a small condenser to the existing steam engine which made it more efficient) needed a way to sell his new machine. While there were plenty of ways to measure how one steam engine compared with another, there wasn’t yet a good way to compare the power of a steam engine with that of less technologically-sophisticated alternatives.