Understanding Media Metrics - Web Metrics Basics for Journalists - First in a Series

Sep 13, 2026

Aimed at newsrooms seeking to connect digital measurement with media impact, this guide introduces core web metrics and the questions journalists should ask when reviewing performance data. It explains how to interpret pageviews, sessions, and users, and highlights why trends are clearer when comparing day-level data with week-level patterns. Using Google Analytics examples, it also covers segmenting by geography and traffic source, and guides readers to compare story-level results to understand what drives public attention and engagement.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryPresentations

FormatPDF

Pages22

Reading Time8 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Basic Questions about Your Website

Taking Measurement to the Next Level

A Note on Digital Metrics Tools

Getting Started: Overall, how is our website doing?

Basic site metrics

Getting specific metrics

Definitions: pageviews, sessions and users

understanding media metrics WEB METRICS Basics for Journalists FIRST IN A SERIES Contents p 1 Introduction p 3 Basic Questions about Your Website p 3 Getting Started: Overall, how is our website doing? p 6 Definitions of pageviews, sessions and users p 8 Getting Specific p 8 How many sessions came from people in our geographic area? p 10 How did people find our site? p 12 How did people find my story? p 15 Was the peak in sessions driven by regulars? p 18 Summary p 19 Taking Measurement to the Next Level WE KNOW THAT MEDIA HAS AN IMPACT ON THE PUBLIC, SHAPING DISCUSSION and action on important issues. How can we use data to trace these connections from the stories that appear in print, online or in broadcast, to how members of the public consume, subscribe, amplify and contribute to the conversation? This guide is the first in the USC Media Impact Project’s Understanding Media Metrics series of publications. The purpose of the series is to help media organizations understand digital measurement tools and the data they can provide to help illuminate parts of the process of media impact that occur online. We’ll start with looking at a few basic metrics of a news site, including the following: • Basic site metrics: Users, sessions, pageviews, bounce rate • Looking at data by day versus data by week • Segmenting by geography and/or traffic source or channel (e.g., organic search, direct, referring sites and links from social media) • Comparing the basic metrics of one story versus another Other publications in the series will examine metrics for other website components, email newsletters, Facebook, Twitter, offline indicators of impact and other forms of media such as documentary films. 1 A NOTE ON DIGITAL METRICS TOOLS This guide uses Google Analytics to illustrate the types of software tools used to gather and report metrics data. Each digital media platform has its own metrics and tools. Data from one tool usually can’t be combined with data from another. Also, data from one organization sometimes can’t be compared with another, even if both are using the same tool. • Each tool uses different methodologies and sometimes different terms. • Unlike Nielsen ratings or Audit Bureau of Circulation numbers, newsrooms can customize the way data is gathered. • The data gathered by a news organizations for its own internal use is proprietary and differs from data gathered by external sources such as comScore. Google Analytics, Adobe SiteCatalyst (formerly Omniture), Chartbeat and WebTrends are just some of the free or paid tools a newsroom can use. All of the reports from these tools are designed to be used by non-technical users. BASIC QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR WEBSITE Getting Started: Overall, how is our website doing? Meet Jenny. She’s a seasoned reporter who hadn’t really given much thought to web metrics (“Isn’t that just for the SEO guy and the advertising salespeople?”) until one day she saw oneof her colleagues looking at Google Analytics. All of those numbers and charts intrigued her. What do they say about who’s seen her work? So one day she asks her editor if she could get access to Google Analytics (“Sure! Have at it. Let me know if you make heads or tails ofit.”) So she dives in, putting her journalistic insticts to work to start asking questions, beginning with the big picture: Overall, what’s going on with the website? 1 After Jenny logs into Google Analytics, she clicks on one of the websites and sees the Audience Overview report, which gives a broad overview of a site’s sessions, or visits. This page has a lot of data, but the chart on the top draws her attention first. This report shows the last 30 days—that’s the default in Google Analytics. Because Jenny wants to look at the big picture, she decides to look at the last three months of data. 2 She clicks on the calendar drop-down atthe top right, selects the start date and the end date, then cl

FAQs

What are the basic metrics covered for a news website?

The guide focuses on users, sessions, pageviews, and bounce rate as core site metrics, plus how to view them by day versus week and by segments like geography and traffic source.

How does the guide define pageviews, sessions, and users?

Pageviews count each time a page is viewed in a browser. A session is a series of pageviews from a single interaction, and a user is measured as activity from a specific device rather than a real-world person.

Why should journalists compare data by week instead of by day?

Day-to-day traffic can hide the overall trend due to normal fluctuations. Viewing metrics by week makes longer-term patterns easier to see.

Sep 13, 2026

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