Opinion: Can cartoons increase news site traffic?
Posted by Lauren Drablier on October 14, 2008 at 9:32 AM
Paul Bradshaw, Senior Lecturer in Online Journalism and Magazines at Birmingham City University, believes that visual imagery can increase news site traffic. Bradshaw did an experiment and found that one cartoon got over 40,000 hits in one week, making it the most popular post ever on his site Online Journalism Blog.
Bradshaw believes there is a reason for their success, "cartoons are close to a universal language." He went on to comment that there is "an opportunity for online publishers to add value to cartoons with just a little commentary in the local language."
Bradshaw believes there is a reason for their success, "cartoons are close to a universal language." He went on to comment that there is "an opportunity for online publishers to add value to cartoons with just a little commentary in the local language."
Bradshaw believes in the value of online imagery and video
content. For example, Slovenian news site, zurnal24.si attracts users
with high quality video games. Slovenia has a population of just 2
million, but in one month games were played 16 million times. The
popularity of the video games has allowed zurnal24.si to increase
advertising revenue.
Bradshaw concluded by offering some advice, "To start, just put your cartoons, infographics, and video online (many still don't), and make the most of the opportunities they present."
Sources: Poynter
Bradshaw concluded by offering some advice, "To start, just put your cartoons, infographics, and video online (many still don't), and make the most of the opportunities they present."
Sources: Poynter
![Digg](http://digg.com/submit?phase=2&&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.editorsweblog.org%2Fmultimedia%2F2008%2F10%2Fopinion_can_cartoons_increase_news_site.php&bodytext=<b>Paul Bradshaw</b>, Senior Lecturer in Online Journalism and Magazines at<b> Birmingham City University</b>, believes that visual imagery can increase news site traffic. Bradshaw did an experiment and found that one cartoon got over 40,000 hits in one week, making it the most popular post ever on his site <b><a href="http://onlinejournalismblog.com/">Online Journalism Blog</a></b>.<br /><br /><form mt:asset-id="1095" class="mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image" style="display: inline;" contenteditable="false"><a href="http://www.editorsweblog.org/cartoon.jpg"><img alt="cartoon.jpg" src="http://www.editorsweblog.org/cartoon-thumb-175x199.jpg" class="mt-image-left" style="margin: 0pt 20px 20px 0pt; float: left;" height="199" width="175" /></a></form>Bradshaw believes there is a reason for their success, "cartoons are close to a universal language." He went on to comment that there is "an opportunity for online publishers to add value to cartoons with just a little commentary in the local language." <br /> <div><br /></div>&title=Opinion: Can cartoons increase news site traffic?){kind=link}
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Cartoons can definitely attract reder attention to both articles / stories and any of your advertiser print ads. Over the last 30+ years of my fulltime involvement with newspaper editors around the US and Canada, I have continually had my existing images used for such purposes. It's great to see an editor mention this.....
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