Risks Abound as Reporters Play in Traffic

By: David Carr | New York Times

It is a dirty secret of the journalism profession that many reporters are bad at math. Many of us ended up typing our way to a living because we had an easier time making words dance than numbers.

But now that everything can be measured, we have to keep an eye on both. Journalists who were paid to write when the muse or events beckoned, are now held accountable for the amount of work they produce and the volume of traffic it attracts.

Gee, it’s almost like news is supposed to be a business or something.