By Warren Hersch
ASBPE President

BusinessWeek: Audience engagement boosts traffic

Digital journalism isn’t just about providing multimedia content. To be effective, that content has to actively engage readers, drawing them into discussions with B2B reporters and editors, and with each other. So said BusinessWeek.com Technology & Science Channel editor Tom Giles during the Web Site of the Year presentation at ASBPE’s Digital Symposium last month.

“Today, context is just as important as content,” said Giles.

At last count:

• Unique monthly visitors stood at 10.2 million, up from 6.4 million in 2006.
• Monthly page-views total 50.4 million, a 20.3 percent rise over the 41.9 million recorded in 2006.
• Most accessed links are video and pod­cast feeds, which nab, respectively more than 500,000 and 820,000 visitors a month.
• Page views driven by search engines are up 45 percent over the last four years.
• BusinessWeek.com's sister site, Business Exchange, now claims more than 32,000 registered users.
• The most active topic, social networking, boasted more than 2,051 new articles and 255 users on Nov. 25.

To encourage reader engagement, Business Exchange sports a “Featured User” box for the individual who has contributed the largest number of posts to a particular topic; and a “What’s Your Idea” section where readers can suggest stories for the magazine.

Note: A longer version of this article appears in the November/December 2009 ASBPE Editor’s Notes member newsletter; it is also available on the ASBPE web site.

Warren Hersch is the ASBPE national president and senior editor for National Underwriter Life & Health.

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