How to get more hits on your site with less content

Today the editor of Salon, Kerry Lauerman, describes a counterintuitive strategy that his group stumbled upon:

There's a terrible stereotype about Web editors, that we just care about traffic. Page views, unique visitors, clicks, hits, eyeballs, drivebys, furtive peeks, longing glances and everything in between.

And it's true! 

Except I'm here to tell you that there's no easy trick, no gimmick, to draw people to read your Website. Trust me, we've tried. 

So what finally worked in the end?  

We've tried to work longer on stories for greater impact, and publish fewer quick-takes that we know you can consume elsewhere. We're actually publishing, on average, roughly one-third fewer posts on Salon than we were a year ago (from 848 to 572 in December; 943 to 602 in January). So: 33 percent fewer posts; 40 percent greater traffic.

It sounds  simple, maybe obvious, but: We've gone back to our primary mission and have been focusing on originality. And it's working. 

Check out the full post here and tell me what you think.