Why KPI Matters for Publishers
vechorka.ru — the regional portal of Stavropol sees 3x growth with no Trump or Ulyukayev articles!
Editorial offices of most CIS countries do not have KPI numbers as part of their overall strategy. And even if they do, their KPIs are typically based on the following items:
- Number of articles
- Number of symbols in said articles
- Quality of writing (based on manual monitoring of incoming traffic or the opinion of the Editor)
Stanislav Maslakov, Editor-in-chief:
“We were able to ensure work effectiveness of our creative staff. They can’t afford ‘bad writing’ anymore — they strive for quality, making sure that every headline is catchy and the content is memorable. They now participate in maximizing the value of their publications.”
The following indicators are being monitored on vechorka.ru
(There are news authors and article authors)
Working with editorial analytics, any publisher can tweak the metrics based on their overall strategy.
For instance, a publisher can monitor the following items:
- Number of unique views
- Number of published articles
- Reader loyalty
- Social media analytics
These metrics are available in real time. This allows the publisher to respond quickly to either a decrease or increase of incoming traffic, based on a variety of sources and topics.
These metrics enable publishers to successfully develop a loyal audience — one that actually reads through the articles without leaving the page after quickly skimming through the first paragraph.
“With the introduction of analytics to our workflow, we now focus on building loyalty and have seen an increase (3–4x) in incoming traffic”
The increase that reflected on the number of views.
In March of 2016, vechorka.ru began working with t.onthe.io and experimenting with particular metrics of interest:
“We are able to see which articles are driving the most traffic and now focus on maximizing the value of these articles. Every month we have certain fees for our authors, and now base them on objective metrics instead of the amount of work they’ve done.”
The monthly read-through metrics
vechorka.ru is an example of the successful implementation of analytics into the overall workflow of the agency, with an 3x increase in growth in less than a year, without reverting to global news.
