AL.com

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AL.com is a privately-held news website produced by Alabama Media Group with offices at 1731 1st Avenue North.

The website, originally called "Alabama Live", was created in 1997 as a partnership between Advance Internet and the three Alabama newspapers owned by Advance Publications (The Huntsville Times, The Birmingham News and The Mobile Register). It was produced in Huntsville with Cindy Martin as president of the company's nine-person staff and Michael Carmean as editor-in-chief of the five of those serving as editorial staff. Alabama Live's "soft launch" took place on August 25, with a public launch on September 1.

The new site took the place of websites established the previous year by the Huntsville and Mobile papers. It was the first web presence for the Birmingham News.

The name was changed to AL.com on April 16, 2001.

Alabama Media Group has described AL.com as featuring "the best in-state college football coverage, buzz-worthy trending topics, important news investigations, breaking news, politics, people and places that impact Alabama and its people. AL.com advertising opportunities include digital display advertising, sponsored articles and video. AL.com also offers special platforms for job listings, auto listings, obituaries, celebrations and for sale ads."

Originally, much of the site's content was drawn from or republished the company's printed newspapers. That relationship gradually reversed itself, with content for the printed newspapers provided by journalists and other creators working as AL.com staff.

Comment controversy

Since its launch, AL.com allowed registered users to leave comments on articles in order to generate reader engagement. Authors were required to engage in a certain number of daily interactions with posters to further generate engagement. However, many readers, authors, and AL.com staff felt that the comments created a “toxic atmosphere”. On February 27, 2020, AL.com, along with all news websites owned by Advance Local (a parent company of Alabama Media Group) eliminated the ability for registered users to comment on articles. AL.com and Advance local cited this toxic atmosphere, the ability to comment on articles on social media platforms, and the fact that only a tiny fraction of website visitors used the comment feature as reasons for eliminating the ability to comment.

Reach and audience

According to Alabama Media Group’s 2021 Media Kit, AL.com is “the state’s largest news and entertainment network”. AL.com reaches over 10 million unique visitors in Alabama each month, and averages 48 million page views per month. AL.com reaches aproximately 60% of households in the Greater Birmingham Metro Area. Their audience is 52% male, 49% female, and the largest audience in terms of age is 55+ (26%), followed by 35-44 (23%), then 45-55 (20%), 25-34 (19%), and finally 18-24 (12%).

Reliability and bias

According to multiple media bias and fact checking sources, AL.com is highly factual in its reporting and has high credibility. Their news content generally has a right-center or slightly right bias, receiving a bias rating of "Right Center" from Media Bias / Fact Check and a bias score of -1.56 (indicating a slight right / center bias, with a score of 0 being unbiased or completely center) from ad fonte media.

According to Media Bias / Fact Check, “the headlines and articles use minimally loaded words and typically quote right-leaning sources that are credible. Editorially, they have a slight right-leaning bias and employ known right-wing columnists, such as Cameron Smith, Vice President of the R Street Institute, a conservative and libertarian think tank based in Washington, D.C. They generally report the news factually and with a moderate conservative bias.”

Notable contributors

References

External links

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