Everyone knows you have to measure things correctly to manage a business well. But the converse of this axiom is that you can get into a lot of trouble if you measure the wrong things.

Unfortunately, this has happened in the newspaper industry with respect to the digital media. Now, it has got to stop.

In a misguided effort to apply the historically successful print business model to the digital media, publishers have spent nearly two decades trying to assemble the biggest audiences they can on their websites and, of late, their Facebook pages and Twitter feeds.

via Reflections of a Newsosaur: Engagement: The new digital metric.