Dear Journalists, Numbers Are Cool
I've always liked statistics. Yes, I'm one of those journalists who actually likes math (OK, math before imaginary numbers, integrals and whatever else we learned and I subsequently forgot in AP Calculus). Percentages, distributions and averages can reveal a lot and lead us to important conclusions. From a media outlet's standpoint, numbers are crucial in identifying audience demographics, topic popularity and reader loyalty. I'd actually been introduced to the wonderful world of Google Analytics before Monday's lecture. The Maneater's online development editor lectured everyone on the editorial board about how to use Google Analytics before giving us access to The Maneater's analytics on our Maneater email accounts powered by Google. Since then, we've been tracking our viewership weekly and have been using these statistics to analyze how (and perhaps why)…