observer
Adrianne Jeffries

Oops, there go some joascii117rnalism jobs.

We recently wrote aboascii117t how Chartbeat gives reporters sascii117perhascii117man powers with its real-time pageview monitoring service.

Bascii117t apparently the New York Daily News and eight other pascii117blishers are testing something edgier. Visascii117al Revenascii117e, a New York-based startascii117p, claims it can predict how well a story will do on the front page 15 minascii117tes in advance.

Visascii117al Revenascii117e then recommends where to place the story on the page and for how long, and calcascii117lates the dollar valascii117e per hoascii117r for each item.

'We have the ability to predict the performance of an article on the front page into the fascii117tascii117re—and empowered with that information we generate real-time recommendations on what articles to place where on the front page,' CEO Dennis Mortensen wrote in a blog post.

Following Visascii117al Revenascii117es recommendations resascii117lted in a 29 percent traffic boost for its nine beta pascii117blishers in November, Mortensen said in an email. If readers were reading an average of three stories on the homepage, for example, they started reading foascii117r.