Drudge Report

The Drudge Revolution, The Untold Story of How Talk Radio, Fox News, and A Gift Shop Clerk with an Internet Connection Took Down the Mainstream Media, by Matthew Lysiak, BenBella 2020

Before there was Drudge, a news aggregator, there were blogs and emails, seemingly disconnected and "untitled."  The web was wide open with many unoccupied slots as a handful of corporate media TV channels and hundreds of newsprint leaders ran the show.  And what was "the show"?  Although Walter Cronkite and Edward R Morrow, news journalists who made it a practice to visit a news site even if it was in a war zone, were trusted to deliver facts and very occasionally temper what they saw with what they felt, they were long gone.  We were no longer on solid ground. 

The power of the worldwide web

But the web has opened opportunity for all of us to be real-time journalists.  Its a mixed blessing.  What Drudge created is now in its second generation, and we are still plumbing the depths of worldwide media access, while the question of bias or trustworthiness remains.  Let's look at history and what we have gained. Although some critics see the Drudge legacy as one of a political power shift- takedowns and challenges to what they call "The Mainstream Media" - as a manufacturing management consultant geek with an over-riding interest in how tech is replacing traditional work, I' d like to look at what Drudge has given us.

First, like Elon Musk and other tech entrepreneurs, Drudge came from a challenging background - a broken family with extremely limited means.  If you were to measure the power of the Drudge website on news creation and the news cycle, it would reveal many challenges to traditional methods.  In fact, when a California State university professor took a look at a data analysis of Drudge links' impact, he found that if Drudge linked to a news story that other media were covering - such as unemployment rates -  the Drudge link did not record many hits.  But when the Drudge Report linked to a controversial issue, such as conservative vs. liberal opinions on electioneering, the switchboard lit up.  The Drudge Report, he concluded,  was able to impact the news cycle.

The website not only gave a bigger voice to conservative speakers, but it also cut the time to hear and opened access to ordinary readers that they would not have previously had time to check.  Long lists of columnists and news organizations around the world - and their headlines, photos and text - became suddenly available at  a click of the keyboard.  Although in 2017 protestors at a Washington FCC office were seen to hold up signs reading "Ban Drudge," that very act raised the freedom principle of net neutrality. It's hard to argue with reach, and Drudge has proven is that a powerful aggregation tool for consumers has increased reach.  In fact, according to author Lysiak, from 2018 to 2019 over eleven billion visits were recorded to the site (Quantcast), and from December 2015-December 2018, 55,136,650,898 page views of the Drudge Report, with 146B average monthly visits (SimilarWeb) support its reach and impact.  

Rumor has it that when the NBA offered Drudge  $150M for the Drudge Report, and he turned it down, he felt that having someone else run his creation under his name would be a mistake.   Which means that this very powerful aggregation news web tool is already changing.  Global web legalities and the challenge of paying for reporters and news sites like TV channels will bring us the next generation of web aggregators, whatever they look like.  They may be extremely personalized to a consumer's political stance, for example, or they may be controlled by a set political player such as China or the US.  But they will be different, and very powerful, and even faster than they are today.  

Patricia E. Moody

FORTUNE magazine  "Pioneering Woman in Mfg" 

IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers,  patriciaemoody@gmail.com