The Wikimedia Foundation has not ignored the decline. For instance, they discuss the overall trends in detail in their quarterly readership metrics reports, the latest of which is at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Readers_metrics_Q4_2016-17_(Apr-Jun_2017).pdf The main difference between what they cover and what I intend to cover are (a) they only cover overall rather than per-page pageviews, (b) they focus more on year-over-year comparisons than long-run trends, (c) related to (b), they don’t discuss the long-run causes. However, these reports are a great way of catching up on incremental overall traffic level updates as well as any analytics or measurement discrepancies that might be driving weird numbers.
Better performing banners are required to raise a higher budget with declining traffic. We’ll continue testing new banners into the next quarter and sharing highlights as we go.
It’s interesting how this concern is completely absent from the present Wikimedia strategy planning exercise.
The Wikimedia Foundation has not ignored the decline. For instance, they discuss the overall trends in detail in their quarterly readership metrics reports, the latest of which is at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_Foundation_Readers_metrics_Q4_2016-17_(Apr-Jun_2017).pdf The main difference between what they cover and what I intend to cover are (a) they only cover overall rather than per-page pageviews, (b) they focus more on year-over-year comparisons than long-run trends, (c) related to (b), they don’t discuss the long-run causes. However, these reports are a great way of catching up on incremental overall traffic level updates as well as any analytics or measurement discrepancies that might be driving weird numbers.
The challenge of raising more funds with declining traffic has also been noted in fundraiser discussions, such as at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Wikipedia_Signpost/2015-10-14/News_and_notes which has the quote: