The actual reach of news portals – the relationship between readership, credibility and influence

Internetski mediji, osobito news portali, svakodnevno dobivaju na važnosti na medijskome i oglašivačkome tržištu te u odnosima s javnošću. Međutim, njihov razvoj ne prati i zadovoljavajuća razina mjerenja njihovih dosega. U Hrvatskoj i Bosni i Hercegovini uglavnom se uspoređuju i rangiraju po broju čitatelja ili otvaranja stranica (uniqueuser i pageimpression), dok se tek razvija praćenje dužine zadržavanja na pojedinim stranicama te praćenje sociodemografskih podataka o korisnicima pojedinih sadržaja. Rad se bavi fenomenom utrke za što većim brojem klikova koji omogućavaju i veći broj oglasa te kritički propituje takav pristup jer broj posjetitelja pojedinih stranica ne daje odgovore na pitanja poput: Koliko vjerujemo objavljenu sadržaju, u kojoj mjeri ga smatramo vjerodostojnim te koliki je stvarni utjecaj portala? Autori ukazuju na jednodimenzionalnost postojeće metrike, jer proizlazi prvenstveno iz potrebe mjerenja radi oglašavanja, odnosno medijskoga planiranja i zakupa, pa tako nema dovoljno informacija i vrijednosti za potpuniju procjenu njihove vjerodostojnosti i utjecaja, a time ni za planiranja u odnosima s javnošću. Naime, ostaje otvoreno pitanje gdje objaviti neki medijski sadržaj želimo li da dođe do naše ciljne skupine i utječe na njezino mišljenje i ponašanje, budući da nam to nužno ne omogućava najčitaniji portal, već onaj čiji brend garantira određenu vrijednost sadržaja vlastitim čitateljima. Autori daju smjernice za kvalitetnije praćenje i vrednovanje news portala.Internet media, especially news portals, are gaining increasing influence on a daily basis in the media and advertising market, as well as in public relations. However, their development is not accompanied by a satisfactory level of measurement of their reach. In Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, for the most part, they are compared and ranked according to unique users and page impressions, while still developing are monitoring of time spent on site, as well as socio-demographic data on users of specific content. The paper deals with the phenomenon of the race for as many “clicks” as possible, which enable more advertisements, and critically examines such an approach given that the number of website visitors does not provide answers to questions like – to what extent do we believe the published content, to what extent do we consider it credible, and what is the portal’s actual influence? The authors point to the one-dimensionality of the existing metrics since it arises primarily from the requirements of measuring due to advertising, that is, media planning and buying, therefore, there are insufficient values and information for a more complete assessment of their credibility and influence, including planning in public relations. Namely, the question remains open as to where to publish some media content if our goal for is to reach our target groups and influence their opinions and behaviours, given that this is not necessarily enabled by the most popular portal, but rather the one whose brand guarantees a certain content value to its own readers. The authors provide guidelines for the quality monitoring and assessment of news portals