N.Y. Observer asks: Are the days of Drudge over?
An article in the New York Observer — “Are the Days of Drudge Over?” — considers whether the influence of Matt Drudge is waning.
Bill Keller, executive editor of the New York Times, provides a loud voice in the article saying that the Drudge Report isn’t what it used to be.
The Observer article — by Gillian Reagan — quotes Keller:
“Your email is the first time anyone — staff, reader, anyone — has mentioned Drudge to me in ages,” he replied via email. “During the campaign it sometimes served to stir the embers of right-wing indignation against The Times, usually by printing a cockeyed version of something we were supposedly about to publish,” he said.
“It’s probably been a year since I looked at the Drudge report, or felt its impact in any way,” Mr. Keller added.
And later in the article:
“Maybe he wasn’t the phenomenon trend-watchers thought,” Mr. Keller said. “Maybe he was just a fad-digital-age hula hoop.”
The article acknowledges that Drudge remains a force:
For some, including the White House, the Drudge Report is still an online media powerhouse. The Drudge Report is No. 115 in Quantcast’s list of most popular sites, ranking higher than washingtonpost.com, nypost.com and politico.com. That’s 1.1 million visitors every day, each of whom refresh the page about 15 times in a 24-hour period, according to Quantcast.
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Steve Parker is the deputy managing editor for news, and oversees the Post-Dispatch's front page. STLtoday's online news editors are on his newsroom team. Parker has been at the paper since September 1980. 
–If traffic has slowed, it is probably an indication that other newer topic specific sites have developed followings. Drudge is a tool, and I mean that literally, that is there to visit when compelled.
–Never found his site that user friendly or useful, others are more detail and user oriented.
dr-debunk is right. Drudge got competition in the past 5-6 years he didn’t have before.
But Bill Keller continues to prove why he and the NY Times is 10 years behind the times. He’s happy Drudge doesn’t have the clout it once did. But he fails to see all the other properties that have made the Times much less influential and in many ways a pariah in print journalism.
Someday he may get it. He sure doesn’t get it now.
Good riddance to Matt Drudge and his ho-hum attitude toward accuracy. It’s about time.
The Drudge Report continues to set records for viewership. Several years ago, it would routinely have about 16,000,000 hits a day. These days I see it in the 20,000,000 to 25,000,000 range.
The reality is that Bill Keller is communicating what he WANTS to be true….that interest in the ‘The Drudge Report’ is waning.
The New York Times is in their own universe…