The size of a news site’s audience isn’t everything.
For an important story, reaching just one person can make a huge impact — if it’s the right person, someone who can take action based on what the journalist has learned and shared. Some of the best reporting in the world is aimed at narrow niche audiences, the sort of people especially connected to a specific issue or place.
But audience size ain’t nothing either. The act of journalism requires an audience; breaking news in your personal diary doesn’t count. The mass part of mass media may feel like a thing of the past, but just about every business model for news requires readers, viewers, listeners, or users — in quantities large enough to pay the bills. And few publishers would turn down more.
