I spoke to Slate reporter Will Oremus on the double-sided coin that is the modern web for a feature about how referral traffic from Facebook has tanked for many web publishers (including, sadly, Slate):
For every five people that Facebook used to send to Slate about a year ago, it now sends less than one. “Every time Facebook traffic would go down, we’d think, ‘OK, maybe this is the low point,’ ” said Slate’s editor in chief, Julia Turner. “And then it would go down even further.”
There are pros and cons to any shift in referral traffic for publishers –– the most complicated shift being that more people are redefining their relationship with news, which can lead to more thoughtful audience engagement… ideally. I’ll keep my rose-tinted glasses on for now.
Continue reading at Slate.
Margarita Noriega 