It’s Easy to be Cynical Living in Worcester

I make a habit of scrutinizing the local media’s blogstats – T&G, ICT, Womag (and recently the local radio stations) to get a feel for where the locals are wasting their time. Blogstats tell an interesting tale.

This week I discovered something surprising - Womag pulled the plug on public access to  it's stats provider Quantcast. Umm, now why would they do that? Keep out prying eyes of course. Womag has obviously been watching too - with aghast.

I started watching Womag’s stats about a year ago, they showed a downward tendency, incessantly downwards that is. According to Compete.com, Womag had only 2,236 viewers in October. I imagine Rosalie Tirella is cackling with glee, but InCity Times stats are just as ugly.

So they finally pulled the plug. Therewith Womag finally admitted that it's losing readership; not only are the webstats lousy, but stacks of issues are lying in the bins. The same with InCity Times too.

So maybe it’s high time for Womag to rethink it's concept? What concept, some may well ask. Womag is Womag – who cares. It’s free. But folks, even free has it limits. Or maybe get the readers to chime in to find a way outta this nightmare. They already have. Wonder how that’s going?

So who exactly reads Womag? According to Alexa.com: Female, between 18-24, has a college degree, and reads it at work. Oh, and she’s single. Um… hey listen dudes, start reading Womag to impress the local ladies with your knowledge of used car prices and sale events! Those demographics are the cause of Womag's ills.

Present day Womag is jammed to the hilt with ads – about 70%, an over-emphasis on personal interest stories appealing to the female locals, profiles of locals no one knows, and lots of filler.  

I’d go so far to say, Womag has created a Worcester that is so surreal that even the lifers among us don’t recognize it. And thinking back here. Since the sale, I’ve never ever heard a soul say, hey did you read the latest Womag? InCity Times yes (not for journalistic reasons), but never Womag.

Don’t be fooled, Womag is a business endeavor, not a journalistic endeavor. It exists solely to sell ads. Womag's not about journalism – enlightening the locals about issues or generating thought provoking insight into current events. It's about ad revenues. Everything else is secondary.

Come on Will, Womag ain’t all bad. Well, I’ll admit sometimes a story catches my attention. They’ve won awards, Will. Have they? Awards you say? They bought em, just like the T&G did. Okay Will, compared to the crap you post, Womag beats you hands down. Touché! Okay, good one. But how come no one is reading it?

Okay Will, if you're so smart, tell us what real journalism is? Um… how about: you’ll know when you read it.