Bloggers sometimes think of their readers. Google Analytics allows us to analyze readership of our sites on a daily and even hourly basis. It does not tell us if you are naughty or nice but it does tell us where you are from and how long you spend on site. It also allows us to come to conclusions on what interests you and what turns you off.
This blogger also has another barometer in the wife. She thinks bitumen is a snore. She cares about the environment but she simply cannot handle tar sands bitumen day after day. At the same time, she likes our poetry but Google Analytics assures us that poetry is a turn-off for serious readers. We struggle on.
What we were going to write about today was the remarkable feat of provincial affairs writer Martin Regg Cohn in the Toronto Star the other day. It was a prodigious accomplishment—120 column inches of condemnation of the Beer Store. We bow to the master. This is also a serious challenge to Rosie DiManno’s crown as the as the most profuse user of words in the Toronto Star.
One tip we would pass on to Martin is something we have learned from Google Analytics: our readership has more than tripled since we put an average limit of 450 words on any one posting. Maybe we do not explain ourselves all the time but we get better readership.
Mind you, Martin’s tour de force could have been easily boiled down to just a couple hundred words. He found that the Beer barons of Ontario have long known how to use good public and government relations to hold on to their outrageous, outdated monopoly.
There is also the outdated and corrupt election funding in Ontario that allows the Beer barons to give hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to Conservative and Liberal politicians. In Ontario there is better control of municipal political donations than provincial. And there is no complaint from the New Democrats as the brewery unions are big supporters of that party.
But with all his words, Martin Regg Cohn left out the God-awful customer experience in so many of those smelly Beer Store outlets. He writes these diatribes as though he has never had to take a load of empties back to the Beer Store.
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Copyright 2014 © Peter Lowry
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