Techmeme analysis, part II: 15% of sources account for more than 70% of headlines

Ian Lamont — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:03:59 -0400

Following yesterday's Techmeme analysis ("Techmeme Leaderboard analysis: Is the old-guard A list fading?") I thought I would share a few additional pieces of data about Techmeme that founder Gabe Rivera shared with me that really illustrate the influence and prominence of the top 100 sources.

First, the 100 publishers on the Leaderboard have a surprising amount of combined "presence." This unique measure of prominence is determined by taking the entire census of headlines in a 30-day period, weighting them for the amount of time spent on Techmeme (measured every five minutes), and then calculating the 100 most-used sources. For the October 1 and July 15 Leaderboards discussed in yesterday's post, the combined presence of the top 100 sources is just over 72%. Rivera told me on the afternoon of July 15 that 685 sources had appeared in the preceding 30 days. In other words, 15% of sources accounted for 72% of featured headlines on Techmeme in that period. The top 10 -- TechCrunch, CNet, the New York Times, SAI, Ars Technica, VentureBeat, The Register, ReadWriteWeb, Engadget, and GigaOM -- accounted for 30% of all headlines.

I also took a look at WeSmirch, which uses the same engine as Techmeme, but a different set of celebrity-focused blogs and publishers. The dominance by the WeSmirch Leaderboard sources was even more striking, even though more of the long tail was included. On the July 15 WeSmirch Leaderboard, the top 100 sources for headlines in the previous 30 days accounted for 93% of presence. The sources ranged from a presence of 0.10% for #100, the Bauer-Griffin blog to 14% for the #1 ranked People. That compares to 0.20% for #100 on the Techmeme Leaderboard for July 15, and just over 7% for the #1 source, TechCrunch. However, Rivera notes that the population of publishers cited in WeSmirch is much smaller -- 265 in the 30-day period ending the middle of this afternoon.

A few years ago, "How to become an A list blogger" was a popular topic. In some niches, it may be possible to make the A list as a standalone blogger. But gaining such a degree of influence and prominence in the crowded technology realm is unlikely, especially with networks and mainstream publishers dominating the discussions.

I'd also like to address a a question that one of my readers, Josh Catone, left yesterday: Does it really matter? He notes that many talented bloggers are being hired by the networks and publishers that are now dominating the Techmeme Leaderboard and asks, "Who cares where they're blogging?"

My take: Individual bloggers often bring a level of expertise that is sorely missing from the mainstream media and blog networks. Unfortunately, these bloggers are less likely to be noticed, or start the featured discussions on Techmeme or anywhere else. Many of these indie bloggers are experts in their respective fields, and can't easily be hired by media companies or blog on a regular basis. This is not Techmeme's fault, but Techmeme certainly reflects these trends, and may be contributing to the dominance of MSM publishers and blog networks.

While I have blogged for many years, I am hardly an expert, much less an A-lister. So, I'd like to hear what you think about the new Techmeme data and my analysis -- feel free to share your comments below.

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