Online News Has A Shelf-Life of 36 Hours

[DudeAsInCool]

I guess this is hardly news for people who live on their computers Hopefully that isn't the case for most folks...but there is some truth to the adage above - news travels quickly these days...

News Online Seems to Have Long Shelf Life

A new research paper seeks to answer a riddle for publishers, editors and even readers: when does new news become old news?

In the case of a news article on the Internet, the answer is surprisingly long: 36 hours on average, according to the paper, “The Dynamics of Information Access on the Web,” which appeared in the June issue of Physical Review E, the journal of the American Physical Society.

More precisely, 36 hours is the amount of time it takes for half of the total readership of an article to have read it, the paper found. The physicist who led the research, Albert-László Barabási of the University of Notre Dame, said that the paper’s conclusion should give journalists hope, even in the era of instant news. Dr. Barabási said that traditional ideas about the way people use the Internet would have led researchers to expect a much shorter half-life, more like two to four hours.

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In fact, you probably already know about this - but in case you don't, and want to read more, you can check out the full article at

The NY Times