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From the Graphics Editor: The Night Of The Scintillating Statistics
From the Editor-in-Chief: Cheers And Jeers
From the Graphics Editor:
It helps to sip a caffeinated tonic whilst reading this.
The Night Of The Scintillating StatisticsIf success can be measured by ratings (after all, that's what keeps Xena and Herc on the air) then Whoosh! continues to climb the ladder.
When Whoosh! first began, I recall very clearly sharing the excitement if we had *gasp* a day when up to five hundred individuals visited our site. That seems like a long time ago compared to the numbers we pull nowadays.
In the month of January, we had over 55,000 individual clients visit our site. Note that this does not include repeat readers -- in terms of total hits we logged more than 1.8 MILLION for January.
The trend just keeps ramping upward. By the end of January, it was normal, not unusual, to have two thousand individuals visit the site per day. If Xena and HERC are seen in about 6 million homes on average, that means that about 1 percent of Xena and HERC viewers also read Whoosh!. That doesn't sound like a large number, but to have that kind of audience strikes me as both an impressive and humbling thing, especially when one considers the ever-increasing rate at which we're read.
To me, as our readership continues to grow, this means our responsibility grows as well. We have to continue to be responsive to our diverse, loyal, and diasporic audience. Fortunately, this is made easier because of -- you! It is the members of IAXS that contribute to Whoosh! and supply those articles you read every month -- and you *do* read Whoosh! for the articles and FAQ as well as for the "pictures" (episode guide and News/Gossip/Rumours)!
Most people tend to read Whoosh! between 11AM and 5PM EST (a sliding time window across the continent at lunch, perhaps?). Whoosh! is least read between 1AM and 5AM EST, but this is only by a factor of about 33% from peak hours, suggesting that with detectable fluctuations for time in the continental USA, Whoosh! is indeed monitored worldwide. The sun never sets on Whoosh!.
The popularity of individual articles varies widely. Some of the interviews are quite popular, and there are articles that do even better when discussing topics that run the gamut from modern feminism to hair colour!
Whatever the reason, you know what you like, and you continue to like Whoosh!, which is very humbling and gratifying. As Xena and Herc continue their respective journeys, we'll be here to share. Thanks for reading, and thanks for telling your friends, siblings, and fellow warlords about us.
Bret Rudnick
Editor-at-Large
Executive Committee
Boston, Massachusetts
2 February, 1998
From the Editor in Chief:
Cheers!
Cheers and JeersONE AGAINST AN ARMY was a refreshing change from the third season's inclination between high drama and low comedy. Okay, it may have gotten a bit schmaltzy here and there, but at least it did not burden the ladies with the eternal fight between good and evil or with the locker room highjinks that Joxer seems to have been condemned to lately. It was a basic hurt/comfort story where Xena got to beat the pants off the Persian Army while periodically having heart to hearts with a dying Gabrielle. Had it appeared in the first or second season, it would have appeared maudlin. However, in the third season it was like manna from heaven. When was the last time you remember that ladies just talking between themselves as they figure out a problem together?
Jeers!
The sudden turn from cartoon violence to graphic violence in XWP is jarring. The last time XWP tried a switch like that was in IS THERE A DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE. But in DOCTOR the point of the story was the cruel results of violence. In the third season's return to this theme, it appears gratuitous and voyeuristic. Why the long, extended dragging of Gabrielle in THE BITTER SUITE? Why the long extended mauling of Gabrielle in FORGIVEN? They outstayed their purpose in both cases.
Kym Masera Taborn
Editor-in-Chief
Executive Committee
Bakersfield, CA
25 February, 1998
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