Content Matters

This political season (can you call something that's gone on for nearly two years a season?) has generated more interest than any other in my lifetime. Cable viewership is up and the political blogs and websites have seen their traffic grow considerably. But in looking at the recent comScore results, while sites like Huffington Post and RealClearPolitics have seen their traffic increase nearly five-fold since last year,  Drudge traffic is up merely 70%.

The Drudge Report still ranks third among political blogs and news sites, with more than 2 million visitors in September, 2008, but Huffington Post traffic is more than double that, while upstart Politico.com has moved ahead of it as well.

Of course, traffic is not the only metric that matters with Drudge. Since its launch during the Clinton-Lewinsky affair, the Drudge Report has often been able to drive the narrative on cable outlets. But there are hints that its ability to impact the story have waned.

Chris Cilizza of the Washington Post blog The Fix recently penned a post asking "Does Drudge Matter?" while Post media columnist Howard Kurtz notes that with the exception of Fox, the cable networks are not following the Drudge lead as often as they had in the past.

In The Marathon Blog, former Clinton communications director Phil Singer notes:

There are a number of reasons why Drudge may be losing his influence. Part of it is due to a changing political environment. During the impeachment trials, cable found viewership shot up with stories about Monica and the dress. While 9/11 brought a temporary end to superficial stories, patriotism became the new ratings driver and stories about John Kerry's windsurfing were ratings winners. Going into 2008 it was evident that the political climate had changed. The recent economic downturn has further buried frivolous stories. When the market is down a thousand points, no one's going to get too riled up that Barbra Streisand has headlined an Obama fundraiser. That's helped to drive MSNBC's ratings to where they rival Fox News in key demographics. At the same time, the alternative media has grown, traditional outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post have launched their own blogs, and there are many more sources for rumors and political news than there were even in 2004.

Of course, credibility is also a contributing factor to Drudge's waning power. While it was always clear that he actively supported the Right, the past year has been instructive. During the GOP primaries, Drudge consistently posted negative stories about McCain and was generally supportive of Obama (in opposition to Hillary Clinton). Once they became their party nominees, his tone flipped with aggressive support of McCain and negative stories of Obama.  While that was to be expected, highlighting stories like this one, showing the Obama lead narrowing (IN A NICKELODEON KIDS POLL)  must raise eyebrows among even his biggest supporters:

So, is this the end for Drudge? Hardly.  While he's not the dominant voice he may have been in the past, he's still got plenty of traffic and he'll always have Fox News to echo his stories. More importantly, should Barack Obama win tonight, the Democrats will control the White House and both chambers of Congress, putting Drudge into a position where I think he's much more effective - as the outsider railing against power. And if not, he can always dream of another impeachment...