Old media outlets’ web traffic growth trails the upstarts

WHAT will Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s boss who just bought the venerable Washington Post, do with a newspaper? Perhaps something similar to what he has done in retailing: create a culture of learning from data to personalise content for each visitor. Such “algorithmic journalism” is still novel but is being tried at Huffington Post and Business Insider, where Mr Bezos is an investor. What’s trending on social media is a factor in what gets covered. The initial response to articles determines how they get promoted on the homepage. Old timers may grumble about a paucity of news values, but it does garner clicks: traffic to both outlets have soared. Business Insider recently overtook Time in traffic. As for the New York Times, its traffic is lower due in part to a metered paywall begun in March 2011, which blocks visitors after a set number of articles unless they subscribe. If Mr Bezos does bring big data to journalism, it just may help old media outlets survive in the digital era.