Remember the July 5 saga of Patrick Abdo rescuing a baby raccoon stuck in his Morgan Junction-area fence? That was the 2nd-most-popular WSB story in July, which we are proud to announce was a record-setting month- 974,110 pageviews, up from the 961K+ record set in June, and a 25 percent increase over July of last year. This summertime readership jump is a new trend, as previous WSB records tended to result from snow!
Since most WSB stories can be seen without clicking away to another page, gauging story popularity from our Google Analytics stats is more art than science – but stories like the raccoon rescue, viewed on a standalone page as people add and read comments, or shared via Facebook, break away from the pack. The month’s #1 story appeared here just last week, inspired by an unexpected line in one of the SPD Blotter‘s relatively routine roundups of traffic patrols: A bicyclist stopped on the Admiral Way hill for going 42 mph. After we noticed it and followed up on it, citywide media picked it up too. Other July highlights: We were first to report on the plan for the now-iconic SBX (right) to take a short jaunt out into Elliott Bay so the drillship Kulluk could join it at Vigor Shipyards on Harbor Island; its trip drew scores of photographers to the shore, and some shared their work here.
July brought another set of numbers that we’re proud of: Community-event sponsorships! WSB co-sponsored as well as covered West Seattle Summer Fest, the West Seattle Grand Parade, the West Seattle Garden Tour, the Alki Art Fair (photo at left), WestSide Baby‘s Stuff the Bus diaper drive, plus the ongoing West Seattle Outdoor Movies (“Despicable Me” this week!) and Summer Concerts at Hiawatha series (Massy Ferguson this week!), and the West Seattle In Motion campaign.
Finally, thank you so much for your support of OUR sponsors – the local businesses and organizations who advertise on WSB because they want to make sure you know who they are, where they are, what they offer. Please let them know you appreciate their support for 24/7 community-collaborative news/information on WSB. Besides their ads in the sidebar, you’ll find them all listed, categorized by type of business, with web/Facebook links and other info, on our SPONSORS! page. Here’s to a great August!
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