Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between types of news events and daily traffic at the New York Times on the Web. CNN and ABC newscasts were content analyzed to represent each day's news coverage and compared with Web site usage data made available by the Times. The results indicate that level of disruptiveness and episodicity were positively correlated with online traffic. Also, several news topics—international politics, education, and science and technology—were positively correlated with online news usage. During the period examined, dominated by the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal, domestic politics, weather, and accident and disaster news were negatively correlated with Web site usage.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.