Huffpo audience down half a million in a year despite launch of Australian operation in August
The massive publicity surrounding the Australian launch of the Huffington Post failed to make a major impact on the website’s local traffic which rose from 1.039m in July to 1.058m, outside the top ten news sits in the country.
While the Nielsen online rankings show the Huffpo has been stable at around the 1m mark this year, its number is well down on August last year where the site recorded its peak Australian audience of 1.681m, despite it now featuring Australian content from more then 30 locally-based staff.
News Corp’s main news website News.com.au remained top of the rankings despite seeing its audience fall month on month, following up last month’s record breaking unique audience of 4.106m, with an audience of 3.883m in August.
The rest of this month’s top ten were relatively stable, although viral content website Buzzfeed would have made tipped the BBC out of the top ten with an audience of 1.712m, were Nielsen to allow it to move from “multi-category news” into the “current events & global news” category.
There’s no clear editorial agenda – ever. Is there a piñata they pluck stories out of the arse of each morning?
The stories – the few good ones that there are – are buried beneath a pile of click bait style headlines. The writing is generally substandard tabloid sensationalism (see today’s entry).
Frankly, if I worked there id be embarrassed by the output. I’d much rather read biased right wing opinion pieces than some of the stuff that passes for journalism on HuffPoAus.
I think the problem is the name. When I first heard the name The Huffington Post I thought it was a satirical site like The Onion. If they want to be taken seriously as a serious and credible news site they will have to find another name.
Daaarrrrrlings.
WHat you are faaaaiiling to appreciate is that HuffPo is not a websie any longer.
We are a “platform”. Just like facebook. And they don’t pay for articles.
And that’s why we don’t pay for journalism.
this is what I mean…. A selection from today’s front page
– Hitler’s Abandoned Hospital Is One Of The Scariest Places Ever
– 4 Ways Economy Class Makes You A Better Human
– There’s A New Swipe Feature On Tinder You Might Want To Know About
– Blinky Bill Confirms Drop Bears Are A Real Thing
– Some Jerk Tries To Kick A Dog, Gets Exactly What He Deserves
– 19 Times Beer Was Your Friend (And One Time It Wasn’t)
Other stories that are better, are external sites or from HuffPo abroad including :
– Homo Naledi: New Species Of Ancient Human Discovered (Huffpo UK)
– Beijing stance in the spotlight as IS takes Chinese hostage (Syndicated – SMH)
– Exhausted, Scared And Wet: The Refugees’ Flight (Medium.com)
– Suicide Prevention Is a Tough Subject for Those of Us Left Behind(Huffpo UK)
– Japan floods: City of Joso hit by ‘unprecedented’ rain (BBC.com)
– Australia’s Domestic Violence Problem Highlighted (HuffPoAU reporting Brisbane Times story)
– Europe’s Refugee Crisis Spawns A Billion-Dollar Industry (Huffpo US)
No sign of the Daily Tele or The Australian in the top 10 again. Unadulterated right-wing propaganda and macho bullying/agenda pushing masquerading as journalism for the majority just doesn’t translate well to digital, clearly (where the true majority now are).
After reading this article I attempted to visit the Huff Post Australia facebook page. Couldn’t find it. Then I realised I had no idea what the URL is for Huffpost Australia. Turns out its long and stupid. When I found the page (I THINK I found it) I didn’t understand what was going on and spent about 30 seconds on it. Just some random blog posts and two obvious news articles – one about Abbott’s refugee decision and the other about Abbott offending with his comment comparing IS to Nazis. News from days ago. So fresh.
Out of Huff.. you described most local publishers there… they all line up outside my door each morning, put the gloves on, and reach in for some Kardashian, Swift, Depp’s Dogs, property porn, Tony’s quote of the week, and Bachelor content updates, and post away.
I’m making a killing!
@ out of huff, totally agree with you. I rarely have a look at it, then it reminds me what a garbage website it is in layout and content and then I don’t visit again for months.
Have so far been thoroughly underwhelmed by the Huff Post Oz. Any time I click on any of their stories, i find I have already read them elsewhere – Smh, News, Yahoo, ABC etc. If there is original content, it is like a maze trying to find it.
I check into other news sites 4 – 5 times a day. HuffPost, I gave up on after Day 4.
Oh, and the fact they don’t pay contributors is another reason I refuse to make them a habit.
Nothing to see here – time to move on.
@The Facts – the website URL is huffingtonpost.com.au. Hardly “long and stupid.”
Thanks Hardly puffing. When I first tried searching for Huff Post Australia in Google I was getting stuff like – http://m.huffpost.com/us/news/australia. I’ve tried searching again & there now seem to be a few more links pointing to the shorter URL.
@ TheFacts: re Daily Tele and The Oz.
And yet News.com.au andDaily Mail are number 1 and 4 in the rankings, so I don’t think this says that Australians are only reading/craving left wing crap either. And before you start your rant on I must be a ‘Bolt report’ viewer (yawn), I 100% agree with your thoughts on the News Corp sites (Tele, Oz, Herald Sun) as well.
This is why I only read sports websites, the only place I can get balanced news, even if it’s only about sports.
My prediction is that HuffPo will fare a lot better in next month’s ratings — not because it’s content has suddenly improved, but because the Fairfax has been doing a lot more to promote HuffPo stories from the home pages of their big masthead sites in the last few weeks. That will potentially have a big impact on Huffpo’s UBs (not necessarily their engagement metrics, though)