The only problem is that almost everyone in the business is unhappy about the lack of sophistication of today's most commonly used metrics.

Today, BuzzFeed said it's going to change how it measures itself. Specifically, the company said it will no longer rely on web publishing's old standby, the "unique visitor." Instead, in an effort to look at itself more holistically, BuzzFeed publisher Dao Nguyen says the company will embrace a range of metrics, from time spent with a piece of content to what it calls "content views."

"Even two years ago, when we all lived in a simpler media landscape, we believed there was no 'one metric to rule them all,'" Nguyen wrote in a blog post. "Today that is even more true."