By FITSNews || We may never know how much money the S.C. Policy Council received to launch The Nerve – its new “citizen reporter” website. We also may never know where all of that money came from.
One thing we do know? The experiment has been an unmitigated failure.
The new media website that promised to “drill a big, fat peephole into closed door politics” and to “put politicians between a rock and a hard drive” has failed to live up to its edgy, advance billing – disappointing its ideological allies and emboldening its critics. Meanwhile, the Policy Council’s few legislative allies are fretting the organization’s diminished focus on … well, policy.
“The reform movement in South Carolina already had a strong new media presence,” one S.C. Senator tells FITS. “It also had a think tank. For the life of me I don’t know why they tried to do this.”
Tried … and failed.
According to Compete.com, The Nerve had just 453 unique visits last month. It also has yet to crack the 2,500 unique visit threshold since its inception in January of this year.
By contrast, FITS had 156,644 unique visits in May while The State.com had 339,428.
Unique visits are the number of individual IP addresses that access a website in a given month. These are different from monthly page views, which take into account multiple visits – or “hits” – from the same IP addresses.
In the past, The Nerve has hotly disputed these traffic numbers – and provided us with data from Google showing that the website was received as many as 4,800 unique visits a month. Still, though, that’s a surprisingly weak performance given the massive amount of funding that was reportedly provided to the Policy Council to launch the website.
Sources tell FITS that The Nerve – which employs at least three full-time reporters on its staff – was founded with grant money from the Koch Foundation, which supports libertarian and conservative causes across the country. How much grant money went to the website?
“High six figures,” one source tells FITS.
We supported the launch of The Nerve (and have even linked to several of their stories in the past). In fact, we were hoping that the website would emerge as an important ideological ally in the uphill battle to expose the truth about the true size and scope of state government in South Carolina.
It certainly looked like that might happen initially as reporters from The Nerve hammered away at the particulars of a big economic incentives deal and a coterie of attractive interns flooded budget hearings with their portable “flip-cams.”
Unfortunately, The Nerve has misfired on every possible level – lagging behind FITS when it comes to key budget and legislative coverage and choosing to focus its considerable resources on lengthy exposes that (as far as we can tell) have only a tangential connection to the Policy Council’s core mission.
Speaking of which, the project has also drained energy and attention away from the valuable research that the Policy Council used to do on state spending, transparency and parental choice.
By Toyota Kawaski June 21, 2010 at 8:36 am
Just like the Policy Council no big shock wave here
By yarrrrr June 21, 2010 at 8:47 am
Six months isn’t enough to determine success or failure… but… if they’re serious about their mission they will completely scrap that eyesore of website and start completely over… a default wordpress installation would be better than what they have up there…
They may want to take a look at the software the runs mydd.com and the dailykos.com…
By yarrrrr June 21, 2010 at 8:56 am
I have a lot of problems with the dailycaller.com(they should get rid of the wire feeds and get rid of the diffefernt sections like US, Politics, World, etc), but thenerve should see what they’ve done… drudge like linkage + guest opeds + some original reporting…
By Fred June 21, 2010 at 9:18 am
I clicked on their link. No boobs. I’m back to FITS.
Tell ‘em to post a story about Tom Davis and Ashley Landess hookin’ up! I know its not true, but it’ll get ‘em some clicks.
Fred
By Darth June 21, 2010 at 9:25 am
So when do they announce that they’ve slept with Barney Frank?
By bolls June 21, 2010 at 9:34 am
BORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GIVE US A HALEY STORY OR SHUT THIS SITE DOWN!!!
By Concerned citizen June 21, 2010 at 9:54 am
I like the story and thank you I now see that I need to share thenerve website with more of my friends. I actually found thenerve about the same time I found fitsnews . I think they have some good reporters over there. I believe they need to tap into more “reg folks” not really into politics as much as “we folks” . I think it could eventually make people feel more enpowered.
By ricky June 21, 2010 at 10:20 am
Other sites are working the Haley-Barrett story better……..what up?
By Silence F-ing Dogood June 21, 2010 at 10:45 am
This story…the day before the run-off? Am I to take it FITS is shutting down, or are you just going to focus more on sports coverage now…?
By WorkingTommyC June 21, 2010 at 10:50 am
The problem may be that, IIRC, they’re hamstrung in what they publish due to their tax status. They need to cut the strings that (in effect) censure them and act like a grown up media outlet if they want to accomplish anything.
By Garnet Spy June 21, 2010 at 10:59 am
And then of course, there is The Spy. While not as heavily trafficked as FITS, it ain’t doing too bad for a single person, unfunded and aperiodic pothole in the highway of intellectual discourse.
By bob June 21, 2010 at 12:12 pm
The Spy looks good. Mind running something on Haley’s and Barrett’s voting records, attendance records, and bill sponsorship please. Both candidates appear slack in all acounts.
By Soft Sigh from Hell June 21, 2010 at 12:13 pm
I wish someone had a site or section of a site where postings on internal goings-on in the various agencies could be made and viewed. A place where the “real” story or else scuttlebutt could be had at distances farther than that agency’s water cooler (do water coolers still exist?). A place were we could contrast the official pronouncements, or else official silence, with information less filtered. You get a hint of what might be available in some readers’ comments on agency-related stories in The State.
I don’t mean just whistle-blowing or the dirty laundry. I’d be interested in hearing employees’ perspectives on the cuts being made and how they are being handled. What happens at the Budget and Control Board will be most interesting. Will it just be the little fish laid off?
The State can’t handle such details or back-stories even if it wanted to.
By Reggie June 21, 2010 at 12:16 pm
That RedDog site has been snooping over here too. Ok Spy, RedDog, Fits, a day before an election…let’s see what you got.
By Suzie June 21, 2010 at 12:33 pm
FITS ……. waiting till the general election will kill the GOP. Why delay for so long????
By Toyota Kawaski June 21, 2010 at 2:36 pm
ah yes working Tammy C has all the answers! Thanks Tammy
By Virgil June 21, 2010 at 5:17 pm
Will,
From the amount of discussion I’m hearing about The Nerve and its stories among folks in the Statehouse, I’d say the numbers you’re attributing to the site are vastly understated. Now, if you’re worried because they’re able to provide some real, substantive journalism whereas your site seems to deal mostly in rumor and innuendo, I can understand why you’re feeling threatened. But your methodology seems awfully suspect.
If The Nerve is getting just 450 or so unique visitors a month – which I sincerely doubt – than that number is made up of every legislator, agency head and other top official in the state. And if you can reach those individuals, you must be doing something right.
I suppose the Nerve could throw up a few pics of bikini-clad women, make up some unsourced sexy rumors and throw in an allusion of corruption with little to nothing to back it up and they’d see their numbers skyrocket, too.
But they’d also have to deal with the fact that they would have squandered their credibility. And, as you yourself have found out, that’s a tough problem to overcome.
By eggaday June 21, 2010 at 7:11 pm
the garnet spy has my respect
By Henry Mac June 21, 2010 at 8:58 pm
Virgil,
I have NEVER heard anyone mention that site at the Statehouse…never.
You got to tone it down when you shill for someone. It is less obvious that way.
Subtle strokes…
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