Laid Off From A Newspaper? Blame Perez Hilton!
Feb 25th, 2009 | By James Lewin | Category: Commentary 
I’m not a fan of gossip sites, but Perez Hilton is a force of nature to be reckoned with.
Yesterday, Perez Hilton (Mario Armando Lavandeira) announced that his site had its busiest day ever – getting an astounding 13.9 million page views in one day.
Meanwhile, the Hearst corporation announced huge layoffs at the San Francisco Chronicle:
Hearst Corporation announced today that its San Francisco Chronicle newspaper is undertaking critical cost-saving measures including a significant reduction in the number of its unionized and nonunion employees. If these savings cannot be accomplished within weeks, Hearst said, the Company will be forced to sell or close the newspaper.
The reductions could results in hundreds losing their jobs.
Think these announcements aren’t connected?
Then check out this graph, via Alexa, comparing the reach of the two organizations online:
Perez Hilton’s site – basically a pop and pop operation – consistently reaches more people online than the San Francisco Chronicle’s site, created by an organization with hundreds of employees and the backing of a multimedia conglomerate.
The Internet has radically changed the economics of news.
Newspapers are going to have to learn from Hilton, and other new media powerhouses, if they want to survive.
via Ryan Spoon
I don’t know if you can really compare Perez Hilton to the San Francisco Chronicle, but it’s kind of amazing that he’s spanking them!
Beware of comparing niche websites with broader interest (newspaper) websites.
Outside of San Francisco, who reads the SFC on a regular basis? The comparison breaks down right there.
The SFC website is broad interest, location specific. Perez is niche specific, broad location. If anything, I believe that is what the central issue is for newspaper websites. You can not be all things to everyone, and certainly not when every other newspaper is using the same strategy.
Tapeleg what part of the graph didn’t you understand?
According to the stats, there are more people going to the perezhilton.com than going to the sfgate.com site.
That’s all its saying but it is saying it.
More people are into the mental equivalent of chewing gum than are into the equivalent of having a meal.
It can even be the same people, One does not preclude the other.
I’m not sure which part I didn’t understand. I think I understand the graph just fine.
Just wondering if you’ve found a good plugin to show two pages of comments. I remember you mentioned something about it a couple months ago.