New York, N.Y. – Traffic to DISCOVERmagazine.com set a new record in March 2009, drawing 1.7 million unique visitors, more than three times the traffic for March 2008.
CEO and Publisher Henry Donahue and popular Bad Astronomy blogger Phil Plait—whose blog garnered 2 million page views in March—made a promise last year (when traffic was one-third what it is now) that they would both get science tattoos if the site’s traffic reached its current level. With those traffic goals now realized, Donahue and Plait are inviting suggestions for tattoo designs via the Bad Astronomy blog.
Donahue explains, “Last summer at Comic Con, Phil Plait and I were marveling at the success of the online science tattoo gallery that Carl Zimmer brought with his blog to DISCOVERmagazine.com. Half kidding, we said we would get tattoos ourselves if we could triple the traffic to the site. Now that that has actually happened, we’re committed to doing it. I think I’m getting a fish and Phil is getting a galaxy, but we’re also excited to see what the readers come up with.”
The site’s relaunch in the middle of last year spurred the traffic growth. A sleek new design for the site’s most important pages, a big increase in timely, Web-exclusive content, and a new blog platform featuring a small group of elite science bloggers attracted unprecedented numbers of hits.
The DISCOVER blogs include:
Bad Astronomy—astronomy and science news, opinion, and skeptical viewpoint;
Cosmic Variance—discussing physics and the rest of the universe, written by seven university physicists;
The Intersection—writer Chris Mooney and biologist Sheril Kirshenbaum’s take on the intersection of science, politics, and culture;
The Loom—a biology blog by leading science writer and DISCOVER magazine columnist Carl Zimmer;
Science Not Fiction—the science of futurist technologies and an excuse to soak in sci-fi TV shows, books, movies, toys and video games;
80beats—DISCOVER’s expert synthesis of the best nuggets of science news each day; and
Discoblog—a view into the strange, surprising, funny side of science.
About DISCOVER DISCOVER and DISCOVERmagazine.com provide access to startling developments in science, technology, and the world around us, with a renewed emphasis on how these breakthroughs affect our lives. DISCOVER is where curious people turn for the news and stories that interest them—and that make them more interesting.
PR Contact: Tricia Gately / 212.624.4799
