UticaOD.com Dropping

[tanouryjr]

UticaOD.com's web numbers are pretty interesting. With only 135,806 avg. visitors per month from Jan. 2008 to Jan. 2009, they also have seen a 3.5% drop in visitors over that same year period.

We all know that subscriptions are down at every newspaper, but many are seeing a major spike in online readership. This is an oppurtunity to generate revenue through ad programs such as AdSense, from Google. However, I was shocked when I looked at the OD's numbers. Not good when print and online are going down.

Furthermore, you will see that they actually took a steady dip in viewership during the peak election season in 2008 (Sept - Nov). This tells me a few things, but most importantly, it tells me that they were not covering the election as they should have been. Not enough in depth reporting. This could explain why the Congressional race was so close. Either they didn't report enough about Arcuri's accomplishments, or they didn't report enough about his shortfalls. I'll let you decide that. Either way, it certainly had some impact on the close race - one way or the other.

In my humble opinion, their bias reporting, coupled with there "one of them" reputation is hurting their bottom line. Maybe this will wake up Gatehouse?

[frankcor]

For my interests (engaging and following intelligent on-line discussions), UticaOD.com is almost unuseable. Forcing the user to scroll down through page after page filled with advertising to follow a 2- or 3-day old discussion and arbitrarily deleting high-quality commentary takes away all attraction for me.

[tanouryjr]

I agree, Frank. They certainly have some issues with their online plan. It's a nice site, and clearly they have the "ability" to make it successful. However, their blatant and obvious biases in which articles get prominantly displayed, and which have comments enabled, is noticable even to the casual observer. Their numbers prove this.

Take the Rome Sentinel for example. Although they have a much smaller overall viewership (obviously they haven't invested much in their site developement), their numbers are very impressive and steady. They have maintained their avg. of roughly 25,000 unique visitors per month over the same year's period. While the OD's overall performance dipped 3.5%, the Rome Sentinel's went UP 56.1%. Not bad.

To put this in prospective, people have made careers off a avg. of 25-30,000 hits per month (see, www.ijustine.com and www.phillyd.tv ).

OD v. Rome Sentinel

[frankcor]

I may be wrong but the Sentinel does very little to promote their site. They have tried discussion forums in the past but there weren't enough participants to reach critical mass. You would see 25 topics with one post each in them.

Also, the Sentinel doesn't post all of its stories on the web. They must still rely on the print version as their prime source of income.

[hans]

Pros and Cons about the Rome Sentinel, they have much better local coverage, ie city, town and village news, Fire Dept too, lots of great photos, on the Con side, the paper sells too well, many times when I try to get a copy they are all sold out, at many locations in northern Oneida County.
Going to try to get home delivery of the "Sentinel"

[lioneljoe]

From Larry T: Either they didn't report enough about Arcuri's accomplishments, or they didn't report enough about his shortfalls

Hi Larry, your getting to be a bit of a puzzle to me. One one hand you have built a well desrved reputaion here and other places as non-partisian articulate and thoughtful advocate for the people of our area. I'm a Republican and I have posted that I would support you for County Executive. On the other hand your letters to the editor on the OD tend to be very partisian, i.e. "all democrates our good, all republicans are bad". You even wrote one praising Michael Arcuri but you also posted that you were at Richard Hanna's election party at the Hotel Utica. So, my question is: who is the real Larry T?

[stoney]

I just want to say the the original OD.com's discussion board was the sole reason I started Utica Area Discussions (which had a good ten-year run with only two threats of litigation ). They censored so much stuff! Then I advertised on the OD board & got a few hundred members.

Thanks, Donna.

[Swimmy]

Hahahahaha. The last discussion board and the lousy moderating done on them is what prompted this board. I hope we're still here 10 years from now. I hope we're even bigger than now.

[stoney]

Yeah, what he/she said!

[tanouryjr]

Feb 28, 2009 9:34:20 GMT -5 lioneljoe said:

From Larry T: Either they didn't report enough about Arcuri's accomplishments, or they didn't report enough about his shortfalls

Hi Larry, your getting to be a bit of a puzzle to me. One one hand you have built a well desrved reputaion here and other places as non-partisian articulate and thoughtful advocate for the people of our area. I'm a Republican and I have posted that I would support you for County Executive. On the other hand your letters to the editor on the OD tend to be very partisian, i.e. "all democrates our good, all republicans are bad". You even wrote one praising Michael Arcuri but you also posted that you were at Richard Hanna's election party at the Hotel Utica. So, my question is: who is the real Larry T?

Lionel, thanks for the comments. I guess that's one of the problems with trying to be objective all the time. I try to look at every issue on its own merits. The letter to the editor was more focused on Utica losing its standing countywide and all of the electeds being from the western portion of the county. Seeing as though Arcuri is from Utica, I would be remised if I didn't mention that. My "thank God for" comment was intended for the mere fact that the congressional seat is held by a Utican.

They also call me parochial for this. However, that is the point of a representative form of government. I am elected to fight for my district and city. If I were a Senator or County Executive, I would fight just as hard for the entire region. I would be in Albany everyday yelling about how we are treated by the State. For now, I'm in the 25th legislative district, and while I'm there, I plan to fight as hard as possible to make my district a better place to live and do business.

I certainly don't think "all" Democrats are good. Actually, I probably have more fights with Democrats. However, on the county level, Republicans have held control of the board forever. Talking in generalalities, it is this reason that I believe it's time to give the Democrats a chance to lead. What do we have to lose? I know I would have a better chance of passing some of my reforms. Also, if you look at their record in county government, they have been MUCH more fiscally liberal than even the Democrats in Washington. It's a whole other ballgame on the local level. The Democrats in county government are way more fiscally conservative.

Hope that helps to explain some of your concerns. Thanks again for the comments and questions.