Should the media eliminate “ghost articles”? The question still divides

Is the hunting for “ghost articles” necessary? In recent years, the offer of news content has exploded with the internet and the multiplication of social media. Today, an article from a local or national publication can compete with content from big international outlets, such as the New York Times. In a world where everything is moving faster and faster and where attention is difficult to capture, some articles are therefore read much more than others.

According to a recent German study conducted by 30 German-speaking publishers, 80% of their articles are considered “ghosts.” In other words, it means that these productions are relatively little read, compared to the time spent on their production. This German study leads to the conclusion that there is a significant gap between supply and demand and rekindles the debate surrounding “ghost articles” in a media industry where attention becomes a battle. 

“I can see the economic logic, save production resources and hence, money. But if we are to keep alive pluralistic democracy, we need to give space to media products consumed by a minority of the population,” said Thomas Hanitzsch, professor of communication at LMU Munich, in reaction to this study.

Many media outlets are also now using news agency dispatches, offering more or less the same article, due to the media crisis. In a book called “L’information à tout prix”, “News at all costs” in English, the authors found that 64% of the online content produced was pure copy and paste in 2017. 

They also analysed the speed of propagation of content. In less than 3 hours on average, an article or information published by a media outlet is then taken up by other media. This situation increases the risk of homogenisation.

Behind this question, there also arises that of the identity of the outlet media. How can you differentiate yourself from the others if you’re only doing popular content in the same way as everyone else? “Eliminating articles not widely read by users drastically reduces diversity of viewpoints. It’s like saying ‘Let’s get rid of Jazz because, compared to mainstream pop music, very few people like it’,” added Hanitzsch. 

Towards a journalism of profitability?

The issue of “ghost articles” hunting is not new but is taking on greater importance due to the ultra-competitive media world powered by a never-ending media crisis. The battle for attention is what every media outlet is looking for. 

However, several experts warn that journalism has no vocation to necessarily be profitable. “In general, I think determining whether to cover something based on a prediction – because of course, it’s only after publication that we know how many people have read any given article – would be a terrible way for a news publisher to go,” said Jane Singer, professor of journalism innovation at City, University of London. 

The media should rather find the right balance between responding to specific needs of the audience but also offering new things. We can easily see that in traditional newspapers, with a hot/breaking news section that meets a social need at a given moment, but also offers original cold topics, often close to magazine type. 

“Coverage of civic matters, in particular, will always draw smaller readership than scandal, gossip, lurid crime, and other ‘shocking’ topics, both because of the inherent human interest in such matters and because social and search algorithms are far more likely to pick up and distribute them,” added Singer. Some strategies are also put in place to attract more readers, such as publishing at a certain time, optimising titles, or even creating SEO-friendly articles for the sole purpose of catching Google’s search engines and optimising traffic. 

The German study has also attracted the wrath of several journalists, denouncing an accounting vision of journalism. “All my articles take longer to write than to read, and fortunately so,” claimed one of them online. Another one said, “It’s crazy to believe that you can write an investigation or a report in less than five hours. Not to mention the pre-investigation time (documentation, interviews, etc.). Personally, I only write long papers. This means that I will soon be unemployed, because it is not profitable for the editorial offices.”

Will the battle for attention intensify in 2025?

News links posted on Meta are messages in bottles while the new boss of X no longer wants to hear about journalism. 74% of the media leaders are now worried about a potential decline in referral traffic from search engines in 2025, according to the Journalism and Technology Trends and Predictions 2025 from the Reuters Institute.

“Social platforms are pursuing policies that will only make these problems steadily worse, as well as making mis/disinformation easier to find than actual facts,” said Jane Singer. “A fightback is urgently needed, but this is not a battle the media can take on alone. Governments must create and enforce laws that hold platforms more accountable for what they publish.”

Produce less, produce better? Some believe that the media should reduce the size of these articles on digital, at a time when it is in competition not only with other national and international newspapers but also with social media, streaming platforms, and other entertainment services. A study from the Columbia Journalism Review already showed in 2013 that major U.S. national newspapers had reduced the number of articles containing more than 2,000 words.

It is now possible to know and measure everything: what people read, whether they get to the end of the article, when they stop, after the title or after the first paragraph. Statistics that might be of interest to media executives in these times of crisis. A real risk for journalism, but for Thomas Hanitzsch, the key to success must remain the quality of the content. “Many editors truly care about quality, others do prioritise traffic and revenue. In the grand scheme of things, economic considerations have gained a lot of momentum, but especially in my part of the world, which has strong public service media, quality is still key to success.”

---