WordblogJournalism in a changing world

A hard-nosed commercial approach to deciding which web projects to support is being taken by Lucas Grindley, content manager of HeraldTribune.com. He has developed a formula for deciding which ideas should be supported. It attempts to evaluate the traffic in terms of views per work hour.

Writing in his blog he is careful to say the formula has to be applied with care, is subject to the demands of bosses and has to make room for “good journalism that might not explode in page views”. He adds: “And remember this is all based on estimates, and you could be wrong. Page views per work hour helps offer perspective, not an absolute timeline.”

How well the formula will work I have no idea but it is clear that a lot more thought has to go into the commercial potential of web content.