Idaho Cat Stages Clickbait

Our corporate web managers define clickbait as a headline that has nothing to do with the story, meaning nothing related to the headline appears in the body.  Our radio station cat, Iris, has featured in a lot of our stories over the years because of her amazing survival skills.  Today, she’s the stand-in for an explanation of how we write.  There was a fellow who accused us of clickbait on our KEZJ Facebook page.  I’m not sure he’s aware of the definition, has probably never posted a story to the web, and certainly never studied the analytics.  We do, once a week in a meeting far longer than it needs to be.

Thanks, Today's My First Day

Another fellow recently complained because our stories on Facebook are linked in the comments.  Analytics, dear boy, analytics.  It brings about a spike in page views.  Why write if there are no eyeballs on the screen?  A few weeks ago, one old crone blew her top over a story I wrote.  A couple of points to make: I rarely write news, first of all.  For twelve years I’ve hosted a conservative talk radio show on KLIX, which has a conservative talk format, where hosts give opinions.  Commentary and journalism are different animals.  We post stories on WordPress, and on the advice of using time wisely, management often recommends we post early but scheduled out.  That means we can write a story Saturday night, and schedule it to post Monday.  Corporate requires 10 posts a week Monday through Friday, but not weekends when readership drops.  Sometimes story details change over time.

There's Nothing People Don't Know

When I roll in Monday morning, my job is first to get a four-hour talk show on-air.  Sometimes details have changed over the course of the weekend, but again, I rarely ever write news, instead focusing on opinion.  I’m making a point, not who, what, where, when, and how.

On the other hand, the web has deflected a lot of the advice we used to get about our on-air products.  Because people who’ve never been closer to the radio than turning a dial know so much more than the people I work for, who study everything down to quarter hours, music, talk topics, and audience response.  Let me put it this way: I know jack about accounting, and don’t presume I can give accountants pointers.