contentious.com

(UPDATE Apr. 22: The Monitor’s blogging chief Tom Regan explains why that news organization is proud of its “bloggiest” status. ALSO: I published a shorter version of this article on Poynter’s E-Media Tidbits blog.)

Today, one of my favorite bloggers, Ethan Zuckerman, explores an intriguing way to gauge the popularity and audience of online news venues: link per thousand circulation (LkpC). See: Is Christian Science Monitor the World’s Bloggiest Newspaper?

Here’s how you calculate this nifty metric, and what it might mean…

1. Search Technorati to determine the number of links that include the paper’s URL. For example, I just did a Technorati search for links to the Indianapolis Star site (search string: http://indystar.com). The result: 1305 links from 942 sources.
2. Get the paper’s peak daily circulation from the Audit Bureau of Circulations. (Figures for the 100 largest US papers are online.) For the Star, estimated daily circulation is: 358,261.
3. Divide the circulation estimate by 1000. For the Star, that yields 358.261.
4. To calculate LkpC, divide the number of inbound links (step 1) by 1/1000 of the daily circulation (step 3). For the Star, this means 1305 / 358.261 = 3.64

Zuckerman calculated a LkpC of 134.9 for the Christian Science Monitor. He noted, “That’s more than double its nearest competitor, the New York Times, with a score of 63.08.” For context, according to Zuckerman the six next “bloggiest” papers are:

• Washington Post: 58.44
• San Francisco Chronicle: 38.32
• Boston Globe: 29.80
• Seattle Post Intelligencer: 18.56
• New York Post: 12.48
• LA Times: 11.21

HOW USEFUL IS THIS METRIC?

I think LkpC is a good idea, but this method definitely needs some refinement. For instance, Technorati would yield different inbound-link figures than, say, BlogPulse or PubSub. Also, I’m not sure whether you can assume that all of the inbound links counted by those search engines necessarily come from weblogs.

Maybe we need an “Audit Bureau of Blogulations?”

…Anyway, I think LkpC or something similar could be a useful gauge for media companies and analysts.

As the blogosphere continues to ascend in the public consciousness, inbound links from blogs will likely account for an increasingly greater share of newspapers’ online audiences. This could influence everything from content to feed offerings to ad strategies.

Also, bloggers are becoming steadily more influential, especially among tech-savvy people (typically an attractive media audience demographic). News organizations don’t just sell news, they wield influence. Therefore, the changing dynamic of media influence is something smart news organizations should consider for the long term.

WHY WSJ FARED SO POORLY

Zuckerman also offers a list of the “least bloggy” newspapers. Tellingly, the Wall Street Journal is among these laggards, with a puny LkpC of just 0.40.

Says Zuckerman, “The Journal is notorious in the blogging community for hiding nearly all of its content behind a paid firewall. Despite the fact that it boasts the second-highest circulation of a US paper (2,106,774), it’s anemic in the blogosphere, with 910 links from 828 sources.”

My opinion: In the emerging and evolving media landscape, such performance might one day become a significant liability in the online media business.