With Web, story popularity changing

By Joel Myhre (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Saturday, December 29, 2007

Monday’s Journal will feature our annual Year in Review, which reveals, in the opinion of the newsroom staff, the top stories in our area for 2007.

Without revealing the list, the way our year went made the selections fairly obvious. After all, it isn’t every year that you have the largest school building referendum in decades passed in Fergus Falls, local National Guard troops returning from Iraq, and a ban on smoking in local bars and restaurants happen in one year. In previous year, any one of those stories would have been considered the big one.

However, with the advent of new technology, I decided to see what stories our readers, particularly our website readers, read the most. I thought it would give me a true picture of what the actual top stories were, and not just based on the opinion of a few reporter types.

After studying the list, it became obvious that an analysis of the top-read stories on The Journal’s website really reveal the reading patterns of those who read the website, rather than the true top stories.

For example, stories that received the most views were the ones that people are interested in commenting on. Clearly, our new “story chat,” allowing readers to comment on stories, has been particularly popular. And stories that everyone has an opinion on, or is interested in reading what everyone’s opinion is, tend to get a lot of, in techie terms, hits. While even those who are reading it know the story probably doesn’t have the same impact as, say, the school bond referendum, they’re reading it, nonetheless.

This is kind of a bittersweet thing, because many of those comments are brutally honest at best, and exaggerated at worst. Frankly, I wish people would mind their P’s and Q’s a bit and be civil. But the stories which revolve around a controversial issue – and containing information that isn’t in the paper, are the ones being read.

Breaking news stories also are among the most read. Stories about tornadoes or residents killed in car accidents, when posted almost immediately after they happen, were very popular in 2007.

The third type is what I would call “Google Nation” stories. For example, an opinion we wrote on Larry Craig, the Idaho senator charged with inappropriate behavior, was one of the top stories on the list. It was popular because there are political geeks worldwide who want to read everything that is written about Larry Craig. When they type his name into Google, our story came up, and thus, with Web readers from far outside our area clicking in, such stories become extremely popular.

Based on my research, I can certainly make two conclusions: 1.) Our commenting feature should continue, and 2.) We need to continue to place breaking news stories on our site as soon as possible.

What the study said about what the “true” top stories of the year? Not much.

•••

I have heard from various outlets about how it’s always good to work the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day. According to the “experts,” it tends to be a either a slack-off week, or an opportunity to get work done that hasn’t been in a long time: filing, organizing and long-term planning, for example.

After the week I have had, I say, bah-humbug to that.

Those so-called experts obviously don’t work at a small business. In offices with large numbers of employees, the loss of even a good percentage of workers taking holiday vacation doesn’t necessarily affect everyone else. At a small business, when one employee takes a vacation, the remaining employees – or supervisors, in this case – need to suck it up and do that person’s work.

Those experts also aren’t familiar with a newspaper operation. In most offices, an employee can take time off, and the work will be there when he or she returns. At a newspaper, with daily, weekly and monthly deadlines continuing to pound along, the work of writing stories, designing pages, selling advertising, and printing must continue, no matter how many employees are available.

So this week, with many employees choosing to take the week off, and a particularly heavy week of deadlines, I found myself busier than at any time of the year, running like a, pardon the phrase, chicken with my head cut off.

Then there’s the fact that most other people, enjoying the week off or a slow week at work, are in a festive mood, and are wondering why you seem so stressed out.

So if the experts want to clarify a bit to read, it’s great taking the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day off, provided you work at a large business without deadline pressures, I would appreciate it.

Joel Myhre is The Journal’s general manager. E-mail him at joel.myhre@fergusfallsjournal.com