The Watsonia Bugle is currently reeling after the loss of its one and only metric for relevance and standing within the local community. In fact, Facebook’s current trial of hiding the total number of “Likes” on each post from everyone but the poster has thrown a metaphorical spanner in the works for all local news conglomerates searching for relevance in a constantly evolving media landscape.

While any social media analyst will tell you that “it’s not all about the Likes”, and things such as pageviews, reach and engagement are more important, we are terribly shallow and base our entire worth on an essentially meaningless measurement. According to our anonymous Editor, “This is a fricken nightmare mate, the office has been in a panic all week. We honestly don’t know if we’re doing good or not.”

Taking very little solace from the fact that a somewhat irrelevant number cannot singlehandedly validate a life’s work in journalism, the Bugle now faces an uncomfortable crossroads. Do we plough on without the world being able to quantify our petty local standing, or do we retreat into the dark hole from whence we came? Only time will tell.

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