OLD Media Moves

How STAT News readership exploded in 2020

Luke Winkie of Nieman Lab writes about STAT News, the Boston-based health care news site where readership grew exponentially in 2020.

Winkie writes, “Last February, the site tripled its metrics to 4.7 million monthly unique visitors. By March, as it proved clear that the pandemic would be the only news story that mattered for quite some time, that number ballooned to a mind-boggling 23 million. Ad sales remained ‘really strong’ throughout the year, said Macaulay, who goes as far to say that June was the company’s ‘biggest month in the history of the brand.’ The days of insularity — when Stat catered primarily to people who already knew what AstraZeneca was long before the clinical trials — are extinct. It’s a media triumph, in the middle of a generation-altering event.

“‘Stat has changed forever after last year,’ said executive editor Rick Berke, who mentioned that the website’s monthly visitors have plateaued to around seven million. ‘As a media company, we were on a good trajectory before the pandemic. But there’s no going back to the pre-pandemic reach that we had.’

“‘Our Chartbeat dial went past the maximum. It went all the way around again,’ said managing editor Gideon Gil. ‘That’s when we realized that we were in a new world.'”

Read more here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.

Recent Posts

Debtwire seeks a private credit reporter

Debtwire, the leading provider of global fixed income news, analysis and data for more than…

3 hours ago

BNN Bloomberg anchor Kanwar is departing

Amber Kanwar, an anchor for BNN Bloomberg in Canada, is departing at the end of…

3 hours ago

Moody’s promotes Kantrow to editor in chief

Moody's Ratings has promoted Yvette Kantrow to senior vice president and editor in chief. She has been…

3 hours ago

Politico reporter Fieseler departs

Politico reporter Clare Fieseler is leaving the news organization to take on some ocean reporting projects. She…

3 hours ago

WSJ’s Eisen to write book about the mortgage market

Wall Street Journal reporter Ben Eisen has signed a contract with Norton to write a book about…

5 hours ago

Reuters hires Krishnakutty as a news producer

Reuters has hired Pia Krishnakutty as a news producer. She has been at The Print as a…

5 hours ago