LikeTheDew.com

As best I can count, 93 writers have contributed more than 500 columns, stories, yarns, reports, “posts” or whatever to Likethedew in the first five months since the website was launched (I upper-case it for reading convenience). They have written about everything from poetry to catfish, happiness to tombstones, Congress to horse racing, sex to baseball, they have memorialized eminent persons such as the late Bill Emerson, Paul Hemphill and James Dickey, commented on the legendary likes of Paul McCartney and devoted tons of words to food and humor, triumph and tragedy.

You may wonder what I’m up to here, but it’s simple enough. I have from Day One been enormously impressed with Likethedew, its writers, articles and other online services. Out of curiosity I decided to examine the archives of Likethedew to see just how big the website has grown, how many columns had been written and by how many writers, just for my own interest, sort of an instance of content analysis. The archives list the headline for each contribution “posted” to the website since it was launched. Anyone can do this, but since I already have, I’ll share my findings for whatever they’re worth.

My only request is please, don’t be too picky. I may have counted wrong here, or omitted an important name there, or my methodology may be screwy, but on balance I think my findings will hold up.

Just to refresh your memories, Likethedew was founded “by a group of former writers from The Atlanta Journal and Constitution and their friends” to “fill in some of the  gaps” in the mainstream press’ coverage of “the modern South.” Needless to say, it has done that and more as “a journal of Southern culture and politics” — and as the above suggests, just about everything else.

Appropriately, Eleanor Ringel Cater was the headliner when Likethedew was launched on March 12. She gave high marks in a review of “Frankly My Dear: Gone With the Wind Revisted,” a new book by critic and journalist Molly Haskell about You Know Who (Whom?).

The website was off and running, with a total of 43 offerings in that month and 110 in April. Since then writers contributed 98 columns in May, 91 in June, 80 in July and 91 as of Aug. 31 and another on Sept. 1.

The archives don’t show how many “hits” each article received, but they do show how many comments each post attracted, and I figured that this would be a rough, but reliable, proxy for reader interest. I concede that this may be debatable. The number of comments cited in the archives at the time I counted them were as of Aug. 28.

Here are some findings (and forgive me in advance for indiscriminately using “column,” “article,” “offering” or something else for the items “posted” to the website, but they all mean the same thing):

• One or more comments were appended to an impressive 87 percent of the columns, and 59 percent attracted from one to five comments apiece. Only 67 did not have any comments attached.

• The largest number of posts — 90 — received one comment each, 69 posts received two comments each, 52 got four each, 45 five each and 43 three each. Oddly, the next largest category was 22 articles, or posts, each of which attracted seven comments.

• At the high end, 11 columns attracted 22 or more comments each.

Now here’s where it gets interesting, if not already: Bob Coram’s June 16 article, “Bring Back the Stewardesses,” attracted the largest number of comments — 89. He ignited a storm of criticism from Likethedew readers by urging that Delta and other airlines “bring back the stewardesses and impose on them an upper age limit of 30.”  Coram contended that changing their occupation title from stewardess to “flight attendant” was “one of the most bizarre marketing ploys in history” — a sentiment Likethedew readers could not have disagreed with more.

The  health care debate in Washington, or whatever it may be called, attracted the next largest number of comments: “Tell Congress to Go to Hell” was the headline on Lee Leslie’s July 29 entry that attracted 48, and “Race, Health Care, and the ‘Southern Strategy’” headlined Cliff Greene’s Aug. 20 column that attracted 40 comments.

Bert Roughton’s June 25 entry, “Rethinking the Death Penalty,” about the Troy Davis court appeal case, attracted 38 comments, and Doug Cumming’s moving tribute, “The legendary Bill Emerson: ‘Exactly how I planned it,’ ” attracted 35.

Obviously, any endeavor such as Likethedew will have its heavy-hitters, while most people will have time for only an occasional contribution — and that’s not meant to be a criticism, it applies to me as well.

Clearly, the heavy hitters on this website are Keith Graham with 60 entries so far and Lee Leslie with 55. Someone called Piney Woods Pete — a throwback to the good old days at The Atlanta Journal and Constitution — has 30.

And forgive me if I missed someone, but the other double-digit authors with 20 or more contributions are Billy Howard, 25; Eleanor Ringel Cater, 23, and Terri Evans, 21.

The only other thing I would add, the “bottom line” as they say in business, is that if Likethedew is any sign of what the future of online journalism will be like, I already feel relieved and encouraged. A lot of talented people have been thrown out by the newspaper industry’s problems, and it’s good that some  have found a way to keep on keeping on via Likethedew.