David Sifry, founder of the blog search engine Technorati, posted an interesting table of the number of links into major websites or blogs. It shows the Los Angeles Times to be the #18 most-linked to media site, behind — among newspapers — the NYT, WaPo, Guardian, USA Today, and SF Gate (SF Chronicle):

To be sure, inbound links are not a measure of popularity the way site traffic or a Neilsen rating is. Sifry explains what you’re looking at:

The chart … illustrates a measure of influence or authority of a site or blog as measured by the number of people who are linking to it. Note that this is not a measure of page views or website “hits”. Rather, Technorati looks at linking behavior as a proxy for attention and influence (emphasis ours). In other words, the more people who link to a site or blog, the more influence it has on others.

If latimes.com were a stock, I’d say it was underperforming. Some thoughts about the poor showing:

• All these sites matter. The LA Times should not look only at other newspapers as competitors — the BBC and Fox News websites compete directly with latimes.com. Ultimately, if people are spending time getting their eclectic pop culture fix from Boing Boing, they’re not getting it from the LA Times.

• Old habits die hard. The popularity of the NYT and WaPo show the extent to which they kick off cascades of follow-on commentary and analysis. Paul Krugman alone is responsible for numerous cases of blogger carpal tunnel syndrome in a way that Michael Hiltzik is not (despite our efforts). Physical location in the centers of media and political power, respectively, should not matter as much any more … but today they still do (and there may be some snob appeal at work too, as the popularity of the NYT in certain Santa Monica zip codes attests).

• But … well-executed online operations pay off in popularity — see both the #4 BBC and the #5 Guardian. It would be interesting to know how many of their links and how much of their traffic is international. My sense is that their web product is doing very well outside the UK — an argument for looking beyond traditional geographic markets. Here in California, the SF Chronicle (the #13 SF Gate above) does a nice job, especially with constantly updated RSS feeds. I get most of my California news from there and the Sacramento Bee site, not the LAT.

There’s certainly hope for the LAT — this space is nothing if not dynamic. The blogs — red lines in the chart — didn’t have any appreciable presence five years ago. Now a law professor in Tennessee working on his blog part time (Instapundit) carries more online heft than the LA Times.

Does this single analysis of influence matter? I’d argue yes. The most linked-to sites are the ones initiating the piling-on effect which was once the province of the major media outlets, but which has now broadened immensely. If tonight’s NYT and Instapundit posts are going to drive (virtual or literal) water cooler conversation tomorrow, why shouldn’t news consumers go straight to those sites (or feeds) and bypass secondary outlets?

As people continue to shift their use of time toward online activities, their news and information acquisition habits will follow. As their habits shift, making a serious online effort will get more and more important — and it will simultaneously get harder and harder. If the LAT wants to live up to its potential, it needs to start now.

In five years the LAT could be at the top of an influence-measure chart, or it could be nowhere (see chicagotribune.com, which is off the bottom of the chart with 6,800 links). Despite our frequent criticism of the LAT, we really hope it’s the former. But measures like Sifry’s — and others we’re working through on our own for future posts — don’t give us much reason for optimism.

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On Sifry’s table, Independent Sources would have a whopping 200 links from other sites … something we’re happy about after only six months. Of our favorite hometown sites, LA Observed has 439; LA Times critic Patterico has 681. Showing what gets attention in cyberspace: the snarkiest and funniest entertainment-biz site on the planet, Defamer, with 2,758.

PS: I know the above measure does not address web site profitability … a topic for another day.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, LA Times, LAT, Los Angeles Times, media, Michael Hiltzik, news media, Paul Krugman, Washington Post, New York Times, technorati

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 24th, 2005 at 11:22 pm by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Blogging, Los Angeles Times, Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.