People's Empty Web Boast
People boasts 4m visitors to the Time Inc. magazine's web site on the day photos of Jennifer Lopez' newborn twins went up. So, is that supposed to be impressive? Well, it is more than New York magazine drew for its cunningly classy recreation of Marilyn Monroe's last photo shoot, with the troubled actress played by a modern-day trainwreck, Lindsay Lohan. Adam Moss' stunt drew 1.3m US visitors per day at the peak of public interest, according to Quantcast. However, People simply directed web visitors to the print magazine, while New York milked the interest for all it was worth, generating nearly 20 pageviews per visitor. And, while People paid a record $6m to Jennifer Lopez for rights to the actress' babies, New York gave Lohan only a boost to her faltering credibility, which cost nothing, except Moss' reputation for high-mindedness. On the web, at least, People got the poorer deal; and that makes their chest-thumping all the more silly. (Data on New York magazine's traffic comes from Quantcast.)