Ok Du anyone up for some debunking of Sludge?

[timber84]

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash1aa.htm


'PROGRESSIVE' MEDIA STALLS: 'AIR AMERICA' IN AUDIENCE PLUNGE
NYC, 'DAILY KOS' BOOK SELLS ONLY 3,600 COPIES
Wed Apr 26 2006 11:39:51 ET

Left-leaning new media has hit turbulence at the marketplace,
newly released stats show.

A book hyped by major media as documenting a progressive
revolution of "blogs" and political power, DAILY KOS
'CRASHING THE GATE,' has sold only 3,630 copies since its
release last month, according to NIELSEN's BOOKSCAN.

[NIELSEN claims only 2,062 copies of DAILY KOS have been
purchased at the retail level; the rest coming through
'discount' outlets.] 

Meanwhile, the just released radio Winter Book [Jan-Mar 2006]
from ARBITRON shows AIR AMERICA in New York City losing more
than a third of its audience -- in the past year!

Among all listeners 12+, it was a race to the bottom for AIR
AMERICA and WLIB as mid-days went from a 1.6 share during
winter 2005 to a 1.0 share winter 2006.

During PM drive, host Randi Rhodes plunged to 27,900 listeners
every quarter hour, finishing 25th place in her time slot,
down from 60,900 listeners every quarter hour in the fall.

A network source says the radio ratings released today do not
reflect the overall growth of the broadcast.

"The demos are better, and listerners trust AIR AMERICA
to give them the real truth on issues and the Bush
presidency," says the insider. 

Developing...

[JackBeck]

1. He has such a hard on for Randi.

He secretly wants her to be his fag hag.

There's no need to debunk anything here, especially when you consider the source.

Notice how he doesn't mention Glenn Greenwald's book?

[Yollam]

2. DKos is "left-leaning"?

I thought that was a DLC/moderate site. I don't read it, but that was my impression. I never heard of the book. I don't know what to say about WLIB's ratings, but it might be good to see how the reichwing radio shows are doing. Could it be that ratings are down for all political shows since it's not an election period right now? Just thinking aloud.

At any rate, whether it's right-leaning or left-leaning, people should keep in mind that talk radio as a rule ALWAYS gets low ratings. Even "high-rated" shows like Rush rarely pull better than a 2 share, and are ALWAYS beaten hands won by pop music radio, and just about every other format.


If the left's message is being rejected, then so is the right's - in favor of Jay-Z and Beyonce.

[timber84]

3. good ponit n/t

[NewJeffCT]

13. To many RWers

Anybody to the left of John McCain is a wild, radical, tree-hugging pinko liberal.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

4. A quick check at Amazon shows it ranked at #32

Suggests that he pulled those sales #'s out of his ass, like the rest of his news. :eyes:

under product details
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1931498997/002-6814585-0184832?v=glance&n=283155

[NewJeffCT]

14. what does #32 on Amazon mean, though?

is that 1,000 books? 5,000? 50? 15,000?

[InternalDialogue]

5. Wordplay.

Amazon ranks Crashing the Gate #32 in overall book sales today. How many is that? Gotta be more than 3,600.

I think Drudge is playing around with words: "only 2,062 copies" at retail -- no one sells at MSRP anymore. Amazon offers a discount, Barnes & Noble offers a discount. By his (Nielsen's) wording, none of those sales would count toward this figure.

[Mabus]

8. Yesterday it was #52. It climbed 20 spots

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #32 in Books (See Top Sellers in Books)
Yesterday: #52 in Books

(same source: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1931498997/103-6365057-8050207?v=glance&n=283155)

Sounds like more of the RW/Drudge's Bizzaro World spin.

[Kingshakabobo]

9. Where does it show the ranking?

I keep looking but can't find it?

[Mabus]

10. In the "Product Detail" section

It is in one of the sections below the image of the book. The first section is "Better Together" where it suggests buying the book along with Kevin Phillips' book. Then there the section for "Customers who bought this item also bought". The third section is the "Editorial Reviews". The fourth is "Product Details" (reprinted below).

Go the page and search for the term "product details". It has already moved up another five spots.

Product Details

* Hardcover: 208 pages
* Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Company (March 2006)
* Language: English
* ISBN: 1931498997
* Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 0.9 inches
* Shipping Weight: 1.0 pounds. (View shipping rates and policies)
* Average Customer Review: based on 58 reviews. (Write a review.)
* Amazon.com Sales Rank: #27 in Books (See Top Sellers in Books)
Yesterday: #52 in Books
(Publishers and authors: improve your sales)
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images (We'll ask you to sign in so we can get back to you)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1931498997/103-6365057-8050207?v=glance&n=283155

[Kingshakabobo]

11. Thanks!! How big of a deal is this rating...

I'm about to jam it down my freeper co-worker's throat

[Mabus]

12. Since Drudge is essentially saying it is a flop

but it continues to climb on Amazon.com's "Top Seller" list it appears the spin that Drudge is spewing ("A book hyped by major media as documenting a progressive revolution of "blogs" and political power, DAILY KOS 'CRASHING THE GATE,' has sold only 3,630 copies since its release last month, according to NIELSEN's BOOKSCAN. - quote from first post) is (surprise surprise) misleading.

Here's something I found on Nielson's Bookscan:

've written a lot about publishing industry numbers and how to estimate title sales using Amazon sales ranks. The one program I've never had direct access to is Nielsen Bookscan, due to the price. I have seen Nielsen reports thanks to low friends in high places, but I've never systematically used Nielsen Bookscan for research as practically everybody else with an interest in publishing numbers does. Nielsen aggregates results from the biggest North American book retailers, including Amazon, Barnes&Noble and Borders, but they lack data from the mass merchandisers like Walmart and supermarkets. Bookscan results are usually given as representing about two thirds of the industry (65% to 70%), but this obviously varies by title. For bestsellers that are widely stocked in mass merchandisers, you'd expect them to be way off, but for books that are sold almost exclusively through Amazon and the chains, which represents a huge part of the trade, they should be pretty spot on.

In an Op-Ed published in the New York Times last week, Tim O'Reilly pointed out that according to Nielsen Bookscan "only 2 percent of the 1.2 million unique titles sold in 2004 had sales of more than 5,000 copies." That amounts to 24,000 titles selling more than 5,000 copies a year. To put that into context, Amazon lists over 24,000 titles published by just one giant trade, McGraw-Hill, in the last five years. Obviously, some of those books are out of print and most of the rest aren't selling over 5,000 copies a year, but it should give you an idea about the relative smallness of the pie. According to Nielsen, they log sales of over 300,000 individual titles in a typical week, but by the time you get to the end of the year, only 1,200,000 unique titles have been sold. Those 900,000 additional titles that have to get smeared out over 52 weeks can't be averaging more than a few sales a year. http://www.fonerbooks.com/2005/10/numbers-for-book-sales-and-nielsen.html

[annabanana]

6. he's irrelevent.......

spinning away is a dusty corner of the internet to hypnotized spiders...

[Radio_Guy]

7. His numbers are wrong

WLIB went from a 1.2 in Winter '05 to a 1.4 in Winter '06. That is a 17% INCREASE in listeners. During the same time period, Rush (WABC) had a 3% DECREASE in listeners. I subscribe to Arbitron. Drudge is just doing the same thing to those numbers as Bush does the inflation numbers.