It's more complicated than this. You are correct, companies can now measure which articles are read and how long people stay on the page, but that is not necessarily how reporters are allocated. One of my friends who is a reporter at a large newspaper that has a union told me it is very difficult to fire the writers that don't get read. The union reporter salaries are capped by the union contract so many of the popular writers will leave for a better opportunity if they can. Those that don't have better opportunities stay. I asked how the most popular writers stay and he told me the very top writers are promoted to management (like asst editor,...) so they can be paid a higher salary.
Where do we start with metrics….i know this very well.
Using views and engagement, on a news story, to determine the worth of the writer is such a bad way to manage (places do it). Usually it is corporate managers who don’t understand news’ place in society. Places like the Courant have turned to this model, letting free market decide what is relevant, and that has predictably devolved into lessening quality and more click bait stories.
I don’t have time to really get into this, could be a Masters Thesis, but the best thing a journalist and editor can do is ignore what “rates” and concentrate on doing relevant and good content.
Chasing clicks devolves into less quality, more content, more click bait.
Views are valuable metric, the most, but your CPMs on click bait content is god awful.