What we measured
We loaded popmatters.com in a real browser, accepted the cookie banner, and scored what came back. Every number below is on a 0–10 scale where 10 is best.
- Ad restraint
- 9
- Design
- 9
- Reach
- 7
- Editorial
- 6
- Signal-to-noise
- 5
- Access
- 8
- Cadence
- 7
- Independence
- 8
Ad entities counted on the homepage after accepting the cookie banner
Clutter, hierarchy, typography and whitespace, scored from our screenshot
Tranco rank for the registrable domain, capped where the feed is a section
Curated judgement of the writing, not a measurement
How much of the feed is the thing you subscribed for
How much is readable without a paywall or a login
Whether it publishes often enough to be worth a slot
Ownership, and how much it constrains what gets covered
What it looks like
Our screenshot of popmatters.com, taken with the cookie banner cleared.
Latest from PopMatters
Straight from the feed. This is what the ticker would be showing you right now.
- The Strokes’ ‘Is This It’ Signaled the Death of Rock Journalism
- Weezer Are in Their Golden Age
- Nina Winder-Lind Is Prophetic on ‘Wild Love’
- The ‘Sounds of Malawi’ Are Vibrant and Varied
- Widespread Panic Rock Like a Sweet Jelly Roll for the Soul
- Josh Mason’s Experimental Music Finds the Perfect Home
- The Past Is Prologue for the Family on ‘Delusions of Grandeur’
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds Keep Reckoning with Death
- Andrew Sacher Immortalises 2010s Emo in ‘Emo Revival’
- The Mountain Goats Follow Their Fearless Leader’s Muse
- Mary Halvorson and Ambrose Akinmusire Connect to Jazz History
- Dan Deacon’s Music for the ‘Little Brother’ in Your Head
- Witches Hammer’s ‘Final Storm’ Is How They Should Go Out
- The Beatles’ ‘Revolver’ Has a Message from Your Future
- Loose Talk with the Afghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli
Where it sits in Culture & Arts
- #28 RogerEbert.com73.5
- #29 Booooooom73
- #30 PopMatters73
- #31 Granta72.5
- #32 No Depression72.5