One of the downsides of focusing on news events is that their life cycle is so short that even though you get a burst of pageviews at the time, the number of pageviews can drop to ~0 after a few days. I think this is an important counter-consideration when thinking about covering viral news events versus writing content that has more steady, durable value (such as Wikipedia pages related to the topics you want to cover).
I would be interested in estimates of the total time you spent on the process (from drafting the article to it getting published) as well as the total pageviews the article has received so far, plus the distribution of these pageviews (how heavily were they concentrated in the first few days after publication, and what is the steady-state rate of pageviews?)
As a general rule, holding the total number of pageviews constant, I value a wider distribution over time, since that reflects sustained interest rather than shallow, topical interest. For instance, I think it’s better to get 1000 views spread evenly over a year versus 1000 views on one day and 0 for the rest of the year (one reason is that the trend line for the former suggests 1000 views every year; another is that topical interest tends to be less focused so the people reading the article are less likely to concentrate and imbibe it).
Another rule is that traffic through social media is more shallow than traffic through search or direct visits, since the latter reflect stronger intent to learn while the former is more of a passive activity. This is another reason why I would discount pageviews that came from social sharing (an exception is focused small-group sharing; what I am really trying to discount is social media virality).
The upside is that it’s the only way to get EA-themed articles into major venues. Wiki pages are only for folks who are interested in the topic already. To get EA-themed ideas to folks who are not already interested in it, news angles are crucial. Then, these can link to more long-term content like Wiki pages or other EA-themed content.
In other words, this focus on news events serves a different and in many ways an orthogonal function to Wiki pages and other such durable content (called evergreen content in marketing lingo, if you’re curious). So both types of content are needed.
We currently have plenty of evergreen content as a movement. We don’t have content that goes to a broad audiences and attracts them to this content. That’s what the breaking news articles do.
If you or anyone else is curious to learn more about the topic, I recommend this book.
One of the downsides of focusing on news events is that their life cycle is so short that even though you get a burst of pageviews at the time, the number of pageviews can drop to ~0 after a few days. I think this is an important counter-consideration when thinking about covering viral news events versus writing content that has more steady, durable value (such as Wikipedia pages related to the topics you want to cover).
I would be interested in estimates of the total time you spent on the process (from drafting the article to it getting published) as well as the total pageviews the article has received so far, plus the distribution of these pageviews (how heavily were they concentrated in the first few days after publication, and what is the steady-state rate of pageviews?)
I posted some more thoughts on the subject here: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-various-parameters-that-affect-the-value-of-a-pageview/answer/Vipul-Naik
As a general rule, holding the total number of pageviews constant, I value a wider distribution over time, since that reflects sustained interest rather than shallow, topical interest. For instance, I think it’s better to get 1000 views spread evenly over a year versus 1000 views on one day and 0 for the rest of the year (one reason is that the trend line for the former suggests 1000 views every year; another is that topical interest tends to be less focused so the people reading the article are less likely to concentrate and imbibe it).
Another rule is that traffic through social media is more shallow than traffic through search or direct visits, since the latter reflect stronger intent to learn while the former is more of a passive activity. This is another reason why I would discount pageviews that came from social sharing (an exception is focused small-group sharing; what I am really trying to discount is social media virality).
Agreed on this downside.
The upside is that it’s the only way to get EA-themed articles into major venues. Wiki pages are only for folks who are interested in the topic already. To get EA-themed ideas to folks who are not already interested in it, news angles are crucial. Then, these can link to more long-term content like Wiki pages or other EA-themed content.
In other words, this focus on news events serves a different and in many ways an orthogonal function to Wiki pages and other such durable content (called evergreen content in marketing lingo, if you’re curious). So both types of content are needed.
We currently have plenty of evergreen content as a movement. We don’t have content that goes to a broad audiences and attracts them to this content. That’s what the breaking news articles do.
If you or anyone else is curious to learn more about the topic, I recommend this book.