Oops — I got addicted to my Medium stats

Real-time analytics are a thrill ride — but they’re leading journalism in the wrong direction.

Rob Howard
Aug 23, 2017 · 3 min read

I clicked “Publish,” and I waited. I tried to move on, reminding myself that a watched pot never boils. Then I checked in — real quick — to see the views and reads. I put my phone in the other room, hoping that’d help me keep my mind on more important things. Somehow, a few minutes later, it made its way back into my pocket. I ate dinner. I checked again. I walked my dog. I checked again. I brushed my teeth. I checked again.

And that was just for the stories that nobody read.

When I’ve had the good fortune to strike a chord with a popular article, the effect was overwhelming. Even with all notifications off, I knew there was action happening online, and I craved the dopamine of watching the hits roll in. I quickly learned that real-time analytics — in many ways the cornerstone of the modern web — are at best a double-edged sword, and at worst an addiction that sends writers all the wrong signals.

It’s not hard to imagine the effect this has on serious journalism

When it comes down to it, the articles I’ve written about the failures of the web and teaching kids to code are fun, but they’re not changing lives. I do my best not to write for “likes,” but even when I find myself hooked to my stats, the stakes for the outside world aren’t particularly high.

For journalists covering serious current events, though, real-time analytics are a huge problem. It’s not that great journalists are writing for stats, it’s that publishers now know exactly, to the minute, which articles are driving traffic and advertising dollars. Spoiler alert: it’s usually not the thoughtful, intellectual ones.

There have always been statistics that drove advertising sales, but before the web, newspaper subscriptions were a lagging indicator of great journalism. If your audience believed, on the whole, that you were rocking it, they’d stick with you for another year and many of their friends and neighbors might subscribe too. Your circulation numbers would go up, and you could charge more for ads — but you never quite knew, at least not down to the page view, which articles translated into dollars.

In the face of this uncertainty, old-school editors did what editors are supposed to do

They prioritized the most meaningful, most important, most compelling work. They wrote wacky headlines and published pictures of cute cats, too, but those were viewed as diversions rather than the stuff that paid the bills.

Today, real-time analytics leave no illusions about what drives advertising dollars — and the result is newspapers (and news feeds) overflowing with clickbait and intensely opinionated articles masquerading as hard news, even in the most prestigious publications. (In fact, real-time stats drive political polarization too.) The focus on “more more more” has left readers — and journalists — with a deafening case of information overload.

The web has transformed publishing and journalism — and not entirely for the better. It’s time to slow down, take a breath, and find the neurological balance that allows us to stay informed without craving the next click.

You’ve reached the last paragraph, which means you’re already a statistic — one “view” and one “read.” Whether you click the little hands to become a coveted “clap,” or you simply move on with your day, it’s cool with me. I won’t be watching.


Rob Howard is the author of Hiatus, a weekly current events briefing with no links, no likes and no distractions. In five minutes a week, you get the knowledge you need to be an informed, responsible citizen.


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Rob Howard

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Mission.org

A network of business & tech podcasts designed to accelerate learning. Selected as “Best of 2018” by Apple. Mission.org

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