News content dubbed "uninteresting" after 36 Hours

Statistical physicists find that interest decreases over time

[Demaestro]

Statistical physicists working in the US and Hungary have reported that rather than exponentially, as was previously thought, that the number of people reading a particular news story on the web decreases with time by a power law.

Original Article:
[physicsweb.org...]

This finding may have implications when it comes to studying the information flow of social networks, marketing and web design.

Wondering also..... could this change ad placement for revenue models? If an ad gets a click on a story older than 36 hours, is it worth more, less?

Could be some interesting algos written to determine this sort of thing and may even lead to expiring ads, or publishers requesting only "fresh" ads from news sources.

[Syzygy]

Hmm, I was going to wait 37 hours before posting...

Interesting, but define what a 'news story' is. :-)

Many of our 'top stories' (most frequently read) can be those originally posted days, weeks and occasionally, months ago. Topicality is always a factor as renewed interest in any specific subject matter can resurrect interest in an 'old' story.

Syzygy

[Demaestro]

An excellent point, I re-read the article (about 28 hours later) but it doesn't really define what "news story" is.

I guess just a factual story about recent events.