Evidently JetBlue is so, so afraid of the rampaging hordes of O'Reilly viewers that they are willing to abandon their support of the YearlyKos convention.
Hey, if I was facing a few hundred misspelled, hate-filled, caps-locked screeds, I might pause for a moment, too. (Eh, probably not.)
But listen up, JetBlue -- the numbers don't lie, and it's a bad business decision to back O'Reilly rather than YearlyKos. In fact, it's a bad decision for advertisers, period.
See below.
The following chart compares total daily visits to DailyKos (does not specify distinct, just total visits) to total viewers of Bill O'Reilly's nightly hate-hour. Note that for DailyKos, this is visit, NOT page views. Including all page views bumps up the DailyKos numbers by about 80K per day.
Note also that the statistics for O'Reilly are only kept for the age 25-to-54 demographic. This, in a nutshell, is THE MOST IMPORTANT statistic in determining advertising rates:
The Adult 25-54 demographic is the single most important sector media buyers and planners use when purchasing commercial television, an unprecedented and comprehensive study of top media professionals has found. Insight Express
While there is no way to know the exact age of visitors to DailyKos, (does anyone have ready access to the data compiled in that recent survey?) it is worth noting that research on the digital divide suggests that internet users have a higher-than average income. This chart is from 1998 but it depicts the pretty stark difference between access to the internet depending on income level.
Our own DrSteveB has provided us with (admittedly unscientific) polls of the community. The one on self-reported personal income shows that over half of respondents earn more than $57,661 a year. The point? The Kos demographic has pretty strong purchasing power, too.
DailyKos Visitors vs. O'Reilly Viewers
Numbers in thousands, visitors to DailyKos vs. Viewers of O'Reilly (only age 25-54 demographic, the most desirable).
The data below is available courtesy of SiteMeter for DailyKos and TVNewser via Neilsen for O'Reilly.
Date | DailyKos | O'Reilly | Winner? |
7/18 | 571 | 505 | Kos! |
7/17 | 613 | 425 | Kos! |
7/16 | 554 | 365 | Kos! |
7/15 | 307 | (off air) | Kos! |
7/14 | 353 | (off air) | Kos! |
7/13 | 508 | 377 | Kos! |
7/12 | 573 | 390 | Kos! |
7/11 | 553 | 447 | Kos! |
7/10 | 537 | 418 | Kos! |
7/9 | 512 | 452 | Kos! |
7/8 | 330 | (off air) | Kos! |
7/7 | 271 | (off air) | Kos! |
7/6 | 436 | 382 | Kos! |
7/5 | 473 | 400 | Kos! |
7/4 | 334 | 246* | Kos! |
7/3 | 529 | 332 | Kos! |
7/2 | 564 | 501 | Kos! |
7/1 | 300 | (off air) | Kos! |
On the Fourth of July, O'Reilly was on FoxNews for four straight hours. (Happy Birthday, America!) His highest hour, 11 p.m., was 246. We still beat it. Heh.
I could go on, but you get the point.
Ditching DailyKos is Bad Business
So if I was deciding between placing a commercial on O'Reilly, vs. here on DailyKos, the numbers don't lie. More eyeballs are trained here on DailyKos than they are on O'Reilly.
If I wanted people to see my ads, and I wanted to target likely consumers, I would go for DailyKos over O'Reilly every time, and twice on the weekends.
Perhaps JetBlue needs to consider how many people they're actually pissing off, and who is more likely to fly their airlines.
If anyone has any other info they'd like to add, please post in the comments.
(Update 2:07 p.m. CST: carolita has great statistics below on income, age, and education of internet and blog users. Thanks, caro!)
(Update 2:12 p.m. CST: terre calculated the percent-increase of total kos views over age 25-54 O'Reilly viewers, see below.)
(Update 2:15 p.m. CST: I think it's worth noting that yes, this isn't a perfect comparison, but it does compare the two key metrics in setting advertising rates -- the 25-54 demo vs. page views. Stranger in a strange land has some other important points that are worth considering as well.)
Have to go do some "real" work now, thanks for recommending.