Introduction

Dear Readers,

We are proud to present to you the first article of
research from the Tow Center for Digital Journalism, which is launching
this fall at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. In
this report, our researchers dig deeply into the many traffic metrics
that confront online news sites, and in the process, they provide
insight into how that cacophony of numbers affects everything from
advertising models to editorial decisions. You’ll notice that the
authors also take an unusual additional step at the end of the report:
They offer recommendations on how and why the Tow Center could play a
role in explaining these metrics and helping the industry deal with
them. We think it is most appropriate, given the nature of the Internet,
that we openly solicit your thoughts about how to shape some of the
research goals of the Tow Center. And so we invite you to read this
report, provide feedback on the findings, and give us your ideas about
what research areas would be most valuable for the Center to pursue. You
can leave comments on the accompanying article on the Columbia
Journalism Review, http://www.cjr.org/reports/traffic_jam.php, or write
us at our email addresses below. We also would like to thank Mary
Graham, a member of the Journalism School’s Board of Visitors, whose
generosity enabled the Tow Center to produce this report. Thank you, and
we look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Bill Grueskin
Dean of Academic Affairs Director, Tow Center for Digital Journalism

Emily Bell
Columbia School of Journalism Columbia School of Journalism
[email protected] [email protected]