Does shared copy inflate a story's reach?
Some outlets run the same copy as others. If each such group counted once, would the top stories change?
- Question
- If the outlets of one syndication ring counted once, how would the top 25 change?
- Method
- Replay each recent run's score with each detected ring's outlets counted as one outlet (a ring: sites repeatedly carrying identical headlines, labelled by hand as owner, network, public broadcaster, wire or mixed) and compare with the ranking as published. The same replay with no rings measures what is not syndication, and is subtracted.
- Result
- Rings of one owner, network or public broadcaster hold 17% of a top-25 story's outlets; counting each once changes about 4% of the top 25. Counting wire and mixed rings once too: 33% of the outlets, about 8% of the top 25.
- Decision
- Production ranking unchanged: ownership rings barely move it, and whether a wire pickup is a newsroom's own choice is a question of definition the data cannot settle. A ring is a shared content pattern, not proof of common ownership.
How it was measured
A story's biggest score term is 3 for each outlet that covered it. Some outlets run the same copy as others: a ring here is a group of sites that repeatedly carry identical headlines. Each ring was labelled by hand by what it looks like: one owner's stations, one network, one public broadcaster, a wire service's subscribers, or mixed. That label describes a content pattern; it is not proof of common ownership.
Each recent run was ranked again with every ring's outlets counted as one outlet, and compared with the ranking as published. The same replay with no rings at all moves the list a little too, because outlet names are normalised in the replay and the earliest runs were scored on feed names. That part is not syndication, and it is subtracted.
The numbers
Run by run · counting owner, network and public-broadcaster rings once
| Run (UTC) | Overlap | Turnover | Outlets in rings |
|---|---|---|---|
| 28 Sep, 00:03 | 0.911 | 4% | 17% |
| 28 Sep, 06:09 | 0.905 | 4% | 17% |
| 28 Sep, 12:03 | 0.927 | 8% | 17% |
| 28 Sep, 18:04 | 0.906 | 8% | 17% |
| 29 Sep, 00:03 | 0.893 | 0% | 17% |
| 29 Sep, 06:11 | 0.883 | 4% | 17% |
| 29 Sep, 12:03 | 0.886 | 4% | 18% |
| 29 Sep, 18:00 | 0.886 | 4% | 18% |
| 1 Oct, 00:00 | 0.893 | 4% | 16% |
| 1 Oct, 16:21 | 0.888 | 0% | 17% |
| 1 Oct, 18:03 | 0.897 | 4% | 16% |
| 2 Oct, 00:02 | 0.974 | 4% | 18% |
With no rings at all the same replay changes 0% of the top 25 on average; that is subtracted in the result.
Limits
- 12 runs over a few days. Rings are found from a week of headlines, so a ring that formed or broke up since is missed.
- Whether a wire pickup counts as its own outlet is a matter of definition. Each subscriber chose to run the story, but the reporting is shared. The data cannot settle that; both readings are shown.
- Nothing here changes how the site ranks stories.