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A reader writes:
What is apparent to me is that the Dish is fast becoming an important source of news in general, akin to what network news was in its heyday. Yes, the news on the Dish is filtered through a bias, but can anyone doubt the importance of the topics that are covered? One crucial difference with the old network news model is that there is thoughtful feedback from readers (again, filtered and edited) so that the news coverage continues and evolves. You have agreed to not be the last word on every subject, and for that we are grateful and more enlightened. You have shown that a lively blog can do without the histrionics, and can be successful by treating its audience with respect. What a novel concept.
Another notes, “That 16.2 minutes of average reading time is without support from a comments section – the great time-sucker (and discourse-poisoner) of the blogosphere.” Another:
Loved reading the Beast’s summary of the Dish readership. It certainly tallies with my own experience. I have the Dish bookmarked and I spend at least 15 minutes a day reading it, often more. For me, the Dish is so successful because it perfectly blends three needs.
Firstly, it provides intelligent insight on subjects that I know I want to read about (politics, the Catholic Church, beagles, etc). Secondly, it introduces me to unexpected worlds. For example, while I was keenly aware of the AIDS plague while it was at its height, I was just a kid attending school in a rural community. My best friend’s gay uncle died of AIDS, a man I never met, and that was as close as I got to the disease. It was a huge, looming menace, but one far outside my own experience. Your writings about surviving the plague have introduced me in a beautifully visceral way to the reality behind the dark cloud I only ever saw from a great distance.
Thirdly, the Dish offers stirring spiritual ruminations. In your piece about the decline of Christianity, I was profoundly impacted by your description of the non-controlling nature of Christ’s love. While this was known to me on a subconscious level, I’d never considered it in the terms you described, and upon seeing this truth, I saw the ways in which I was failing to live up to my own faith. Your article revealed to me my own failings, and taught me about the kind of person I want to be. What other blog does that?
Of course many readers could do without all the “god babble“. Another:
My two favorite blogs are the Dish and Dave Weigel’s blog. Almost for opposite reasons too. Weigel gives snarky yet emotionless campaign coverage that’s really insightful and funny. You are passionate, earnest, and idiosyncratically insightful and you approach many subjects with the joyful wanderlust of a child. It’s that earnest and curious smiling embrace of the diversity of the world that makes us feel comfortable in your particular place in the world of words.
Dish crew: The blog always looks great, is attractive to the eye and fun to navigate; as a reader once said, this is the best blog to check out while drunk (and that’s important to us under-35ers). The work you all put in makes this blog really rewarding and engrossing to people like me who love an online stew of culture, art, politics and good writing!
We also get emails with harsh but constructive criticism, such as this one from May 23:
I have to say, I’ve been a consistent, regular Dish reader for a long time (3 or 4 years at least), and the last several weeks is the first time I’ve felt like I’ve been able to detect an unevenness in the quality of Dish content, as if it were being put together by a group of people of uneven judgement. I resonate with the reader who wrote, “Quit linking to trashy stuff on HuffPo – it brings down your content.” Some examples:
Siri’s Breaking Point (5/22/12 4:46 PM), especially the first link. I was expecting something real and got a stupid Facebook meme instead.
The Word of God, as discussed (5/21/12 5:24 PM)
When You Ask for Dumb (5/21/12 1:45 PM) as discussed by the other reader
When Settlers Attack (5/21/12 1:28 PM) The video appears to show the settlers firing in response to attacks by stone-throwing Palestinians, but it’s clear what happened before. In this case, the headline implied outright aggression, but the post doesn’t back that up. The Dish already has a reputation in certain quarters for unevenly covering the Israeli//Palestinian issue. Drudge-like headlines not justified by the actual content don’t help.
Backlash (5/20/12 7:09 PM) What? That was link worthy? Another wasted click.
As I think about it, the unevenness I’m noticing may be connected to terse, poorly-written, uncommunicative posts that are basically just links. A short link post can be informative, even though its brief, like Heartland In Crisis (5/21/12 10:48 AM). Those posts have been a part of the Dish for a long time, and I like them. They make for efficient, interesting reading. Or it can be so opaque that I HAVE to click the link to even understand the post (Backlash). If I have to do that, and it’s not worth it, my reading experience is lessened. It’s just sloppy.
Well, we are not perfect. One more:
I read the Dish on a daily basis and, while I cannot claim to be in the under 35 group, I am definitely in the group that spends more than 16.2 minutes per day. I do so almost exclusively by reading the RSS feed as it appears in my Google Reader application. Here’s my question: Is my reading activity included in your bookmark rate of 70% and do they help you with advertisers? In other words, should I be reading directly from the website instead? My current practices are strictly for my convenience and I would be willing to change them if doing so would help create the type of numbers that allow you and all of the others at the Dish to keep providing the wonderful content I so enjoy.
This question highlights a greater point regarding web content: I often don’t understand how the people who create the content I enjoy get paid for their work and how I should best consume the material so that they, in fact, get paid. For example, if I buy an “album” from iTunes does the artist get the same payment as if I buy the CD from the record store? How do I best ensure that the money I spend gets to the person who created the content? (The e-book post from this week raises the same issue). I’m self interested, of course. I want the content creator to make enough of a living so that he or she can keep generating more!
We checked back with the Beast’s analytics guy, Arran Bardige, and he says that we get roughly 80,000 readers through RSS, or about 8 percent of our monthly audience – a number that was not included in the 70 percent bookmark rate. So the percentage of readers who come directly to the Dish is closer to 80 percent. Also from Arran:
Here is another fun stat: 77% of Dish Readers come back multiple times a day.
(Photos from Dish readers’ Gmail profiles, used with permission)
The Dish 