Tribune Misleads Readers About Careerbuilder
A few days ago we expressed skepticism of some unattributed statistics cited in a Chicago Tribune story about Tribune-owned Careerbuilder.com. We were right to be skeptical. The Jan. 19 story gives readers the impression that Careerbuilder has passed Monster.com as the leading job-search site, but that claim is simply false.
According to Alexa.com, which ranks websites based on internet traffic, Monster.com was the 298th most popular website over the past three months, while Careerbuilder was 373rd. Over the past week, Monster was ranked 286th, compared to Careerbuilder's 321st. And lest you think the Tribune property is catching up, it isn't: both sites saw their traffic drop about 20 percent over the past three months, probably because of the holidays.
So what was the Tribune story talking about? Mary Ellen Podmolik's story states that "CareerBuilder climb(ed) over Monster.com to become the largest online job site." Largeness, huh? Is that like bigness? What is largeness when it comes to websites? The number of pages? The amount of revenue? The number of visitors? Podmolik doesn't say. "Largest" is simply the word Careerbuilder uses in its advertising tagline, and the Tribune seems to have reprinted it as the lede of a news story. But it seems to us that the leading website is the one that attracts the most traffic.
Podmolik never mentions Monster's substantial advantage in traffic, even when citing Careerbuilder's traffic claims.
Later Podmolik cites another Careerbuilder claim that "it had passed archrival Monster in revenues," but Podmolik neither cites Monster's revenue nor gives Monster an opportunity to respond.
What we may be seeing, in fact, is a new push by Careerbuilder to try to pass Monster, using the Chicago Tribune, Mary Ellen Podmolik, and you, Chicago, as a big springboard of free advertising. Don't buy it.
The Blind Leading the Less Blind
James O'Shea, the Chicago Tribune scab sent to Los Angeles to serve as editor of the Times, announced his exciting new strategy for combating the Times' Tribunesque descent into mediocrity. What could it be? You're looking at it. The internet. According to a story in the Times:
According to Alexa.com, the LA Times website is ranked 807th, which is pretty crappy. The New York Times, by contrast, is 109th. But the flagship of the Cubune Empire, the Chicago Tribune itself, is ranked 1,333rd. And falling. Rapidly.
Alexa also rates chicagotribune.com as "slow." 74 percent of websites are faster.
The LA Times following James O'Shea into the internet age is a bit like, I don't know, the Chicago Cubs putting Larry Rothschild in charge of their pitchers. Tribune has its own special logic doesn't it? The logic of losing.
According to Alexa.com, which ranks websites based on internet traffic, Monster.com was the 298th most popular website over the past three months, while Careerbuilder was 373rd. Over the past week, Monster was ranked 286th, compared to Careerbuilder's 321st. And lest you think the Tribune property is catching up, it isn't: both sites saw their traffic drop about 20 percent over the past three months, probably because of the holidays.
So what was the Tribune story talking about? Mary Ellen Podmolik's story states that "CareerBuilder climb(ed) over Monster.com to become the largest online job site." Largeness, huh? Is that like bigness? What is largeness when it comes to websites? The number of pages? The amount of revenue? The number of visitors? Podmolik doesn't say. "Largest" is simply the word Careerbuilder uses in its advertising tagline, and the Tribune seems to have reprinted it as the lede of a news story. But it seems to us that the leading website is the one that attracts the most traffic.
Podmolik never mentions Monster's substantial advantage in traffic, even when citing Careerbuilder's traffic claims.
Later Podmolik cites another Careerbuilder claim that "it had passed archrival Monster in revenues," but Podmolik neither cites Monster's revenue nor gives Monster an opportunity to respond.
What we may be seeing, in fact, is a new push by Careerbuilder to try to pass Monster, using the Chicago Tribune, Mary Ellen Podmolik, and you, Chicago, as a big springboard of free advertising. Don't buy it.
The Blind Leading the Less Blind
James O'Shea, the Chicago Tribune scab sent to Los Angeles to serve as editor of the Times, announced his exciting new strategy for combating the Times' Tribunesque descent into mediocrity. What could it be? You're looking at it. The internet. According to a story in the Times:
Los Angeles Times Editor James E. O'Shea unveiled a major initiative Wednesday to combine operations of the newspaper and its Internet site — a change he said was crucial to ensuring that The Times remains a premier news outlet. O'Shea employed dire statistics on declining print advertising revenue to urge The Times' 940 journalists to throw off a "bunker mentality" and view latimes.com as the paper's primary vehicle for delivering news.Everyone outside of Tribune seems to think the Times just needs to be liberated from Tribune, but inside the bunker James O'Shea thinks he can revitalize the Times by bringing it into the mid-1990s. Just one problem: the LA Times is way ahead of the paper where James O'Shea learned the ropes.
According to Alexa.com, the LA Times website is ranked 807th, which is pretty crappy. The New York Times, by contrast, is 109th. But the flagship of the Cubune Empire, the Chicago Tribune itself, is ranked 1,333rd. And falling. Rapidly.
Alexa also rates chicagotribune.com as "slow." 74 percent of websites are faster.
The LA Times following James O'Shea into the internet age is a bit like, I don't know, the Chicago Cubs putting Larry Rothschild in charge of their pitchers. Tribune has its own special logic doesn't it? The logic of losing.
Labels: Careerbuilder, LA Times, Tribune Company
posted by Chicago Cubune Watch permalink
