Web users have varied interests in online news

One of the best ways to create a surge in web traffic is to get some great press coverage. How big? One of our clients captured 50% of its 2006 online donations in June -- most of that within 24 hours after its spokesperson appeared on CNN's Anderson Cooper for an hour. We're talking over $350,000.

Some good news has just been published by Pew's Center for Excellence in Journalism. They compared the top news stories offered by "mainstream" news outlets to the most popular stories in user-driven news sites, like Reddit, Digg, Deli.cio.us, and Yahoo! They found very little overlap.

In addition, they found that the top stories on user-driven sites tended to be much more varied and much more transient. This means that nonprofits have a greater opportunity to get their stories "published" in these user-driven sites. But, the decision to make these stories popular does not lie with editors. Instead, users drive the rankings. In other words, your communications department can stop schmoozing the editors, and instead publish press releases that are hip, relevant, unique and easy to read.

Whether this is good news or bad news for your nonprofit depends on which of those skills your communications department practices.

Read the report highlights here.