Pop Up Mania

It is a story that has been floating around for a while, but today the New York Times reported that Entrepreneur.com and several other publishing sites have been inflating their circ numbers (I'm shocked, shocked I tell you). The way it worked is that content (actual content, not ads) was popping up all over the place. The result was that the site's traffic more than tripled from about 2 million to 7.6 million according to the Times. That translates into some serious cash. Others busted in Pop Upgate include Concierge.com (the site belonging to Conde Nast Traveler), ForbesAutos.com and Heavy.com. Heavy.com says that the content was placed by third parties, without its knowledge.

NYT New Media Saga Continues

Speaking of the Times, John Cook of the Seattle Post Intelligencer reported that NYT.com is linking to Facebook, Digg and Newsvine. Material on the Times' blogs and NYT Select will not be available for sharing. Thus, one wonders if the NYT is in the midst of making another online misstep, inviting the type of controversy that accompanied the introduction of the paper's select service.