Telegraph's web traffic chasing secrets revealed by Private Eye

One of the few paper publications I still buy (jndeed subscribe to) is Private Eye, the UK's only satirical magazine.

In this fortnight's 'Street of Shame' (the section exposing the often shallow hypocrisy of the media) there's an interesting insight into how the Daily Telegraph achieves such high online traffic:

According to Eye:

"news hacks are sent a memo three or four times a day from the website boffins listing the top subjects being searched in the last few hours on Google. They are then exepected to write stories accordingly and/or get as many of those key words into the first par of their story."

Of course, most Private Eye material needs to be taken with a pinch of salt and to the ultra-traditional Eye journalists basing stores on digital consumer demand is a terrible thing. It is also the cause of the Telegraph's growing obsession with celebrity and news-lite entertainment stories.

But that's unfair, as the Telegraph has made some significant and well-thought out investments in the digital space under editor, Will Lewis. For example it was the first UK newspaper to reorganise its enwsroom to recognise the primacy of the web in the news cycle.

I wonder if the Telegraph's blogger Shane Richmond has anything to add to the Eye's story. Shane?

Comments

[Stephen Waddington]

Agree with your analysis Simon. The Telegraph has radically re-engineered itself around a content model and should be applauded. It's video news round-up is excellent and beats the BBC and FT.