“when the paper analyzed its online traffic, they found that fully 40 per cent of the paper is read by fewer than 1,000 people.” I wonder what this 40% consist

“when the paper analyzed its online traffic, they found that fully 40 per cent of the paper is read by fewer than 1,000 people.” I wonder what this 40% consisted of. Never forget social signalling, "this is what everyone expects we do". They don't actually read it or want it, but they expect to see it there, like a glass of water at a restaurant table. Consider how some products exist mostly to funnel purchasers up to the next highest product tier. Likewise I suspect some stories exist mostly to funnel readers to stories they want read, not to be read by themselves. With no actual data, its merely theoretical, but there are at least some theoretical models that could excuse the creation of unread content. Not that I would waste much time or money on the unread-by-design content, although literal lorem ipsum as content might be going a bit far.