Before August is too far along: Thanks for a record-setting July!

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!

14 Replies to "Before August is too far along: Thanks for a record-setting July!"

  • The Velvet Bulldog August 2, 2011 (8:11 am)

    I’ve lost count of how many times I now overhear, “I read on the Blog…” This is the go-to place for any West Seattle-related info. Your popularity is well deserved. Great work, team!

  • Jeff August 2, 2011 (10:07 am)

    You guys are right up there with the Huffpo, Drudge and Yelp as far as sites that I check multiple times a day go.

    You’re the first place I go when I hear sirens or see a lot of police activity.

  • miws August 2, 2011 (11:42 am)

    Okay, gang, let’s hit 1 million for August!

    .

    Congrats, WSB, and thanks yet again for all you do, and to the community you have created, and the generosity it has shown.

    .

    Mike

  • lucky chick August 2, 2011 (1:26 pm)

    Ha! I had scanned this story back in July and when I just now read this headline I couldn’t figure why on Earth it got so many hits. Well, apparently I failed to scroll down in July and I missed the series of photos. What a great little story (and photos)!

  • Aman August 2, 2011 (4:01 pm)

    Dear WSB:
    You are welcome! Keep up the fine work!!
    Are you able to answer the following questions?
    1.)How many registered viewers does the WS Blog Currently Have?
    On Average, how many Subscribers are logged in at any given time?
    3.) Will you be publishing the results of your last months WS Blog user-survey?
    Thank You!!!

    • WSB August 2, 2011 (4:11 pm)

      We don’t have registered readers. The forum requires registration. I haven’t checked its membership lately, but some of it is spam that never gets through our filters so the actual number would be less than the registered number. Regarding how many people are on the site at any given time, there’s no way to track that without going through server logs and counting by hand. I watch the live logs on occasion and sometimes there are multiple people coming into the site within the span of a second, sometimes less. Looking at something in the course of a day is a more measured way to do it. One interesting number is the monthly “unique users” – while we have more than 30,000 regulars, there are also many more who maybe visit once or twice, and last month we set a “unique monthly users” record too, more than 127,000 homes and businesses that visited WSB at least once in the course of the month. Yes, obviously, that’s more homes/businesses than we have in West Seattle; we are also read downtown, read in Olympia, read in such far-flung places as – I just heard from regular readers in these two this week – Montana and Mexico. And sometimes some one-time visitors come from an interesting story like the raccoon rescue that transcends place; the link gets passed around Facebook and next thing you know, there’s another thousand people. The number of regulars just keeps growing, and that’s what matters most.
      .
      Re: the user survey, we are still reviewing that and most importantly, working on some of the features that were most requested. We’ll talk about it as we roll those out. But there is no scientific way to crunch it, either, since as you know, if you took it, it was open-ended questions, NOT yes/no or anything else calculable … TR

  • Aman August 2, 2011 (5:45 pm)

    Thank you WSB for your prompt reply. When time permits, I have 2 additional questions:
    1.) How many total people are registered for the “Forum.” (including spam, dual posters, etc…)
    2.) Regarding your recent reader-survey, directionally, are there any evident “emerging themes” you would be willing to share?

    • WSB August 2, 2011 (5:56 pm)

      A – Unfortunately re: #2, this is a very competitive business and I don’t want to tip our hat to some of what’s under development, although we had some suggestions for classified ads and as I’ve said repeatedly in the Forums, we have them in the works, just a couple last hurdles to clear, so that’s something coming up. Re: #1, I’ll look it up after Night Out…

  • ScottA August 2, 2011 (11:03 pm)

    I’ve been looking for an opportunity to ask you (TR) a couple of news media related questions since I really appreciate your work and significant experience in a variety of roles/organizations. If you have a few minutes for brief responses that would be great (or direct me to where you do want to respond). I’m in the construction business so I don’t know much about news gathering except as a consumer.

    1. It seems like late afternoon local evening newscasts will be a thing of the past in the not too distant future. Can the economics of advertising and viewership patterns possibly support TV news much longer?

    2. Helicopters are extremely expensive to operate. I’m surprised TV stations find a return on investment having them fly to a story – certainly they’re nice for the aerial view but that’s a really expensive aerial view. Back in the day when a chopper was needed to bounce a signal from the van to the station or when the chopper brought back tape of an event – that made some sense. But now it seems like there’s little need for the chopper except for remote stories that you want to get to fast or where aerial shots really attract viewers. Are the days of local stations maintaining choppers numbered? (not to mention heli-drones with cameras that WSB could probably dispatch in the not too distant future!)

    3. News crews still seem to be using bulky cameras for remote shots when I walk past a remote shot around downtown Seattle. With DSLR’s being used for even some shots in feature films nowadays is there some special audio or video requirement for such large cameras? Just seems contrary to the electronics marketplace I see everywhere else.

    Thanks for your time!

    • WSB August 3, 2011 (12:03 am)

      #1 – It depends on how much more cheaply stations can manage to keep producing “product” and whether anyone is watching. I am no longer privy to overnight ratings but I saw a precipitous fall in my 15 years here. In the early ’90s, we might win the 11 pm news by attracting 12 percent of all households with TV, the number two newscast might get 11 percent, and the number three perhaps 7 or 8, meaning at least 30 percent of all households with TV were watching the late news. By the time I left almost four years ago, you could win with a 4. Heaven only knows what it’s down to now.

      2. There were historically some things you needed the chopper for besides just flying over traffic. You might need to get engineers to distant repeaters, for example. Or you might need to get a reporter out to the coast or some other distant place for breaking news. Still a luxury and I’m surprised they haven’t been cut. The 2nd station I worked for here, KCPQ, managed to do without one. The others, I think, are legacies sustained by old momentum … speaking of which …

      3. Problem is that they BOUGHT those bulky cameras and can’t just not use them. Same with the live vans. You could do credible TV without much more equipment than I carry around on a daily basis – a handheld consumer camera, a higher-end laptop and mobile connectivity. There’s some phasing-in that I’ve seen of more realistic equipment, but otherwise, it’s more “we have it so we use it.”

      Did you work in TV?

  • ScottA August 3, 2011 (12:22 am)

    Thanks for the responses – I think you could have a separate blog for reporting on the media business! I’ve never worked in TV but I was interested in it as a kid and did TV production class at Eckstein Middle School in the 80’s. Toured the then new KCTS studios back then too for a Career Day. I always take an interest in the equipment and methods of reporting and the combination of glamour and lugging equipment around that the on-air people do.

  • Aman August 4, 2011 (10:36 am)

    Dear WSB:
    Your reply on 8/2 to my question 1.) How many total people are registered for the “Forum.” (including spam, dual posters, etc…) was “I’ll look it up after Night Out…”

    Did I miss your reply? I can’t seem to locate it.
    Thank you.

    • WSB August 4, 2011 (10:57 am)

      The newest version of bbPress, installed some months back, doesn’t show a total number. So sorry, I don’t have that. When I last looked literally years (two or so) ago, there were 8,000. I just don’t have the time to count by hand.

  • Aman August 4, 2011 (11:15 am)

    WSB: Thanks for the reply.

    Given the recent historical exponential growth in WSB page-views I would guess many more than 8,000 registered “WSB Forums” users today vs 2+ years ago. It would be a potentially useful number to know and keep track of. But then so would a lot of “Stuff.” Keep up the GREAT work!

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