Thanks for the comments.

I should have introduced the median-vs-mean distinction; I wasn't that organized. I do understand the difference. In my work life as well as coping with media hype, I spend significant time dealing with inherently irrelevant statistical claims.

I do wonder about effective power, though. Reaching the *right* 25 readers may be worth as much as reaching 25,000 miscellaneous readers.

Bringing it back home, I write a monthly column that lands in 64,000+ librarian mailboxes in snazzy print form, another monthly column that lands in 12,000+ "econtent industry" mailboxes in snazzy print form, and my own zine, which seems to reach 1,400 or so (plus passalong readership). Which has more impact?

I'm almost certain that the zine has more impact than the 12,000-"reader" column. I'm not sure about the widely-distributed column. I am sure that it gives me a voice which, *in my own field*, is significant enough to make me nervous about my often-imprecise unedited prose.

And, heck, I get written about in Infothought. That's worth quite a bit right there.