It’s been two weeks since we announced that Anthill Magazine would be reducing its print frequency (in favour of a fuller, fatter quarterly) and that we would be simultaneously re-launching our website (part of a concerted push into digital media).
Most media outlets love to dish out stories of doom and gloom (except Anthill, of course). So, it didn’t come as too much of a surprise that most media coverage on our little re-structure was both light and dark in nature.
Two themes emerged:
- Anthill as another casualty of economic climate.
- Anthill as portent of print/digital convergence.
While some bloggers did seriously consider (and celebrate) the foresight involved in the decision, not one large media outlet bothered to consider the positive implications of the move, particularly from a business perspective.
So, how are we doin’?
Firstly, from day one, Monday 9 February 2009, under the new structure, we saw a big jump in traffic (a fourfold increase, in fact):
And then, the increase held (dipping on weekends):
We employed free traffic comparison site Alexa to get these numbers and threw in one old media and one new media company for the purposes of comparison. So, while these stats are not rock solid (as anyone who uses Alexa will tell you), they were free (as anyone who uses Alexa will also tell you, with even greater relish).
And how did we achieve this fourfold increase in traffic?
The cause was simple… It was you!
From the moment our announcement letter hit subscriber mail-boxes, you and your blog posts, twitter messages and email chatter snowballed our announcement into a positive viral campaign not seen since Ned Flanders almost lost the Leftorium.
(“Ned Flanders is in trouble!!!?”)
So… quite simply… thank you.
Let it be known, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, rumours of our demise are greatly exaggerated. And to quote Randy Bachman, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet.” 😉
