The best statistic in Ben’s report: his Page-View-to-Subscriber ratio.
The Brooks Review has 7,334 RSS subscribers (which I’m willing to bet is a lot higher — RSS measurement is oddly difficult to pinpoint) with average monthly views of 45,000. This yields a ratio of 6.136 page views per subscriber.
The closer that ratio is to one (1), the better.
To follow in the same transparent footprints, we can calculate The Newsprint’s ratio. To my knowledge, The Newsprint’s RSS subscribership sits around 750. With average monthly page views around 22,000, The Newsprint has a Page-View-to-Subscriber Ratio of 29.333.
Either his ratio is extremely impressive, or The Newsprint has a very long way to go. I’m willing to bet that it’s a lot of both.
UPDATE: Perhaps a ratio of 1:1 shouldn’t be the goal, as that provides no room for new audience members to join. However, there can’t be any doubt that 6:1 is far better than 29:1.