Traffic from Drudge can be a double-edged sword. Commonly heard gripes from publishing executives is it comes in the form of spikes that are hard to foresee, so unlike Google and Facebook, it’s hard to optimize to. The traffic is short-term in nature, making it hard to turn into a sustained (valuable) audience, and it often brings with it toxic remarks that pollute the comments section. Simply put, it’s hard to have a Drudge strategy.
The Chicago Sun-Times temporarily shut down its comments section last year after commenters on a crime story, many of whom saw the story on Drudge, got out of hand.
Drudge referrals are “an example of what can happen with a lot of polarized traffic coming in from outside the usual readership,” said Craig Newman, managing editor at the Chicago Sun-Times. “Very short-lived spikes. And unpredictable in nature — nothing to be planned for.”
