In the dark old days, editors ran what they thought we ought to read. Now they’re running what they think we want to read.

I’m getting lots of requests to send the web traffic stats back into print editorial systems so they can better decide on future content. A truly slippery slope indeed, especially when you consider that traffic stats are really still not generally understood in the newsroom. These folks will soon find themselves chasing shadows as the vast hordes of google spiders and yahoo bots wreck their metrics.