BREAKING NEWS & VIEWS

Smithsonian Exhibits Exemplary Web Growth
Friday, May 22, 2009
Steve Smith

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As we outline in next week’s Digital Boxscores in min, the science category of online content really broke out over the past year, as Discover, Scientific American and Smithsonian magazines all enjoyed terrific Web traffic and audience gains. Apparently the Web is filled with science news and opinon hounds, and now that traditional brands are putting their content into the digital eco-system more effectively, the genre is, well, blasting off.

Case in point, Smithsonian Digital Network which has seen its audience grow from 369,000 in March 2008 to 687,000 in March 2009 (per min’s Boxscores). Page views have more than doubled in that time as well. The network encompasses four sites, SmithsonianMag.com, AirSpaceMag.com, goSmithsonian and SmithsonianChannel.com. According to Joel Newman, interactive advertising operations coordinator, Smithsonian Media, the growth comes from a full court press that advanced the brand across all of the digital terrain. Content is key, and the site dedicated itself to putting out more Web-only photos, multimedia and articles that stoked the other distribution efforts. “Our annual Photo Contest in Q1 was a big draw,” says Newman, because users pored over one another’s images. Smithsonian has a number of franchises like Museum Day (free admission to the museum) that also bring people to the site in growing numbers.

But Smithsonian is also working the levers of Web syndications. On the social networks, article sharing into the Digg, StumbleUpon, Yahoo Buzz and Reddit networks is helping science fans not only discover individual articles but also move to the brand. “We’ve had a couple of days, in fact, where over half of our visitors were referred by social bookmarking sites,” says Newman.

And then there are the portals. Smithsonian is getting pick-ups from Yahoo, Huffington Post and Fox News, which not only spikes traffic but lead to good conversions into brand loyalists.

For the full list of over 100 magazine brand sites comparing March 2008 to March 2009 traffic, see next week’s issue of min.

If you have breaking news to share please contact Steve Smith at ssmith@accessintel.com
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