Like a good tabloid photo editor, Matt Drudge has a way of sniffing out the best part of a story, turning a rather mundane news report into a pull-quoted breaking bulletin that rockets around the press corps in minutes. That's one reason WaPo's Chris Cillizza gives for the influence of The Drudge Report. The second explanation? That everybody in the media is reading him, which gives Drudge one of the most influential, some might say "elite," readerships around.
But none of that explains the real reason why Drudge exerts so much influence in what's considered news. CONTINUED »
Fortune editor-at-large Richard Siklos has exactly zero new things to say about Drudge: "There is no Drudge video section, no subsidiary sections of the report (lifestyle, sports, and so forth) and no tricky pop-up windows to keep visitors on the site there rather than sending them elsewhere on the web. In short there is very little that looks like it was done for many of those "-ization" words that are so de rigueur in webland, - optimization and monetization. All Drudge produces is a single page, updated a few dozen times every day by Drudge personally - he has purportedly not missed a day since he launched the site-with the help of a part-time associate or two." [Fortune]
Sure, there are some links up top about Hillary and Obama going at each other, but on this day, when the future of the Democratic party, and perhaps the White House, is literally on the line, Matt Drudge's lead story is this.
Naturally, the Katie Couric-hating Matt Drudge went with this dramatic photo for his story about CBS's maybe-deal with CNN. But with so many options to choose from, it'd be a shame to let fellow Couric bashers go without the news kingpin's resources. So what could have been some of his other options?
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Is Arianna Huffington's group blog getting more traffic than the indefatigable Matt Drudge? Third-party sources who are often completely off base say yes! Nielsen Online says HuffPo snagged 3.7 millino unique visitors in February, to Drudge's mere 3.4m. comScore's numbers are tinier than Nielsen's, but report the same trend: HuffPo's 2.3m to Drudge's 1.6m. Maybe Bill O'Reilly's ambush tactics are working in her favor? [Boomtown]
It's another shiny day for Matt Drudge, the political and weather headline blogger. Not only is he getting the write-around treatment from the Daily Telegraph, a la New York magazine, but he's also being hailed as a friend to journalism in some circles. If it weren't for his blaring typeface, Prince Harry's stint in Afghanistan may have never come to light, or at least not so soon, since the entire British press was in cahoots never to tell the public about it. Or: Drudge is a self-serving douchebag, who'd rather score more pageviews than protect the safety of a royal.
WANNA BUY DRUDGE? Offer him $10 million, and see if he bites. [Portfolio]
If you find the Drudge Report boring, you probably won’t find Matt Drudge’s interview with Sky TV in England any more interesting. The interview has gems like "I find myself updating hundreds of times a day. Hundreds of times a day!” and “You have to really read a lot of varied sources."
Still, it’s always nice to see Matt Drudge fedora-less every once in a while.
From our mailbag: "In my Media Studies class [at NYU] this morning, the professor asked, "How many of you know who Matt Drudge is?" Total silence. Then he asked, "How many of you DON'T know who Matt Drudge is?" Practically every hand in the 300-person class shot up. So it looks like NYU students don't read The Drudge Report, or New York
Magazine."
Take that, Serena Torrey.
• Britney Spears' bodyguard is almost as ginormous as we thought he'd be, but what he lacks in girth he makes up for in sheer bitterness.
• ABC bids a tearful farewell to Amanda Congdon, opting not to renew her contract despite Congdon's earning a "double-d" for determination and bringing whole new meaning to the term "boob tube."
• Matt Drudge is possibly a closeted homosexual, definitely someone whose pick-up lines need some work.
• Barack Obama is great at telling us what's on his iPod, not so great at telling us about his thoughts on education, healthcare or social security.
While Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici wonders whether last week's New York profile is what motivated Matt Drudge to cancel his radio show (it wasn't; turns out, Drudge made that call before the article ran), it's clear the Internet's most pernicious link publisher wasn't happy with it. And not just evidenced by his refusal to participate.
As a New York letter to the editor (or "Comment," as Adam Moss calls them) reads this week: "Among his quarks, blogger Matt Drudge is known for linking to stories that mention his name. But not always: He has yet to link to "Watching Matt Drudge," by Philip Weiss, which is bad, since the salient fact about Drudge is that he drives traffic."
One day after Matt Drudge announced that he's abandoning his Sunday radio gig comes word that Barbara Walters will be hosting her very own weekly talk radio show.
The show (cleverly entitled "Barbara Live") will enable listeners to call in with controversial pot-stirring questions like "Was Rosie O'Donnell leaving The View the best thing that ever happened to you, Elisabeth Hasselbeck's tear-ducts?" and "Is Joy Behar as boring in real-life as she seems on tv?"*
"Barbara Live" is slated to premiere on Sirius Radio next Monday, from 6-7pm, just in time for its target demograpic to slowklyydecompress after a long, grueling day of golfing and early-bird specials.
* Translation: benign, uninteresting questions like "What do you enjoy most about working on The View?" and "Barbara, where do you get your suits tailored?"
"Matt Drudge is walking away from his weekly Sunday night talk radio show after a farewell broadcast on Sept. 30," reports Radio Ink. "Premiere Radio Networks is announcing that Bill Cunningham of WLW Cincinnati will take over in Drudge's time slot."
Though abandoning his radio spot, Drudge will nonetheless continue to maintain the Drudge Report, a website he founded for the dual purpose of crashing the stock market and turning a lifelong affinity for stalking into a lucrative semi-respectable career.
In other news, Dick Tracey called. He wants his losery alter ego back.
Even without a face to face interview, New York Magazine still manages to profile internet ace Matt Drudge this week with a very familiar lede.
In lieu of speaking with him, Philip Weiss talks to everyone surrounding him, learning Drudge began to lose his hair in high school, used to deliver the Washington Star and that back then, he was the one who was had trouble reaching people. When he was 15, he was arrested for making “annoying phone calls to a girl.”
Since then, Drudge has been on the straight shot to sanity.
At his $1 million-plus condo in Miami's Four Seasons hotel, Drudge ignores even a "note slipped under his door by the concierge … [and] numerous phone calls and e-mails requesting an interview." He also doesn't want your link suggestions, ya pageview hopefuls. [LAT]
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