Entering the Chase for Clicks

This chapter examines how TheNotebook and LaPlace websites entered the chase for traffic. It recounts how the two websites realized that they needed to attract more online readers to survive. It also talks about how TheNotebook and LaPlace developed the same editorial and organizational strategies to increase their traffic over time despite distinct political and editorial identities. The chapter shows how media organizations located thousands of miles apart ended up making similar editorial decisions when they entered the chase for clicks. It also provides an analysis of TheNotebook and LaPlace when they started experiencing an acute tension between editorial and click-based modes of evaluation, which affected the kind of content they published.