Quantcast Statistics - The New York Times vs Film Annex.com traffic
Growing up in Philadelphia, I was always the kid who read The New York Times, rather than 
the Philadelphia papers. I was very close with my Uncle Bill Sweeney who was born in Philadelphia and lived in Manhattan most of his adult life. I was a frequent visitor to his apartment on 44th Street for years. His obituary in the New York Times states:
"William O. Sweeney, a communications specialist known for his work in population control and family planning, died of cancer of the pancreas Saturday at the Devon Manor convalescent home in Devon, Pa. He was 55 years old and lived in Manhattan.
Mr. Sweeney was on the staff of the Ford Foundation from the late 1960's until 1981. During that time he traveled extensively in developing nations, helping their governments to set up family planning programs."
Uncle "Willie" loved The New York Times and now I have been now been living in Manhattan for over twenty years. I am still an avid reader of The New York Times with Thomas Friedman being my favorite columnist. As Wikipedia states about The New York Times:
"The New York Times (NYT) is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 108 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other news organization. Its website is the most popular American online newspaper website."
My wife is also an avid reader of The New York Times and she basically can't go on vacation to a place that does not have access to a hard copy of the New York Times (no tablet for her!). Katie grew up in Connecticut with a father who was a speechwriter for President Richard Nixon and he received his PhD in Communications from New York University. Her Dad really respected The New York Times, and that respect was passed onto Katie.
So today when I was checking in on the data that we have generated during this big Film Annex traffic growth spurt of July 2012, I went to Quantcast to check some of the names that we are passing and I saw this:
Quantcast measures and organizes the world’s audiences in real-time so advertisers can buy, sell and connect with the people who matter most to them. Ranked Fast Company‘s # 3 Most Innovative Company on the Web for 2010, the company is used by the top 10 media agencies in the US, the world’s largest brands and more than half of the top advertising supported publishers. Quantcast connects the planning, buying, and media fulfillment processes, delivering the marketplace’s most consistent and accountable audiences. This list ranks websites based on the number of people in The United States who visit each site within a month. It includes sites with estimated traffic as well as sites with traffic that Quantcast has independently verified. Quantcast directly measures site traffic through the implementation of the Quantcast asynchronous tag on each web site.
Film Annex Founder Francesco Rulli is a crazy genius, and it has been an amazing summer for our team. You never know where things will be in a week or a month, but I have to say seeing The New York Times below Film Annex raises the level of responsibility for us at Film Annex and Film Annex Capital Partners.
Please be clear, this is not some celebration that we "passed The Times" on one statistical measurement. All of the above is stated with a sense of awe and respect for the space that we now occupy.
Our work in Afghanistan and Central Asia continues.....