Archive for January 8th, 2008
January 8th, 2008
I sent around 10:25 p.m. today the note below to staff who worked to feed rrstar.com today …
I wanted to share with all of you, for sure … if I missed anyone, please pass along …
You all kicked butt today. Thanks for the hard work, especially on the photo galleries and videos. We gave our readers a lot of great stuff today. And as a result of all the hard work today pushing content to the Web, our print readers will get a treat in Wednesday’s paper. Definitely worth more than the 75 cents they’ll pay at the racks.
To get a quick glimpse of all you did, check out the special report page. Of the 506,529 page views so far today, 278,425 were of multimedia. That’s awesome. Our staff photo galleries did extremely well. The day-of gallery generated 100,000 page views today alone. The “aftermath” gallery got 35,000 page views. Our readers’ tornado photo gallery got 88,000, and readers’ orchard photos have gotten 9,000 so far today. That means photos got 232,000 page views today (through 10:20 p.m.).
I can’t remember traffic like this. Well done.
Thanks,
Anna
January 8th, 2008
We now have a special report on the Boone tornado. You’ll find several photo galleries (the most popular content you’ve clicked on in the last two days), videos (I’m even yelling at one staffer) and stories. As of 5:50 p.m. Tuesday, we’ve gotten more than 416,000 pages today alone. That’s incredible. More than half of the page views have been on tornado-related content.
January 8th, 2008
the no-duh headline of the day: people have been turning out in droves to see our tornado coverage.
and i mean see: photo galleries are the top draw, and that’s no surprise. it traditionally is the case in breaking news … or even when it’s just your snow photos. but video is really rating highly, too.
as of 12:30 pm (less than 24 hours since the storm hit), we’ve had 200,000 page views on tornado-related coverage. almost 157,000 of those are on photos. about 20,000 are on videos by rrs and wrex.
we haven’t had much time to break down where all the traffic is coming from, but we do know some of it is national, like from google searches … or former rockford residents (like former sports reporter andre smith, who is now in delaware but told us he’s following what we’re doing).
January 8th, 2008
RRS file photo | After the tornado had ravaged Belvidere High School, this group of students staggered from the building in a driving rain. Behind them the force of the storm had all but ripped the name of the school from the building. As she left the school, one girl asked, “Where was God?”
monday’s tornado in boone county reminds folks of the tornado from april 21, 1967.
we’ve reposted our special multimedia report for you to revisit the memories. you can find maps, photos, stories and the “day after” newspaper.
or you can read more local tornado history here.
if you want to share your thoughts about that tornado from four decades ago, email onlinenews@rrstar.com.
January 8th, 2008
let’s be honest. we don’t get too many comments on this blog (except here, which is great). we use this blog to explain what we do and what’s going on in our business, which is important but not always “hot.”
on the other hand, pat cunningham’s new applesauce blog on politics is driving conversation. at the very least, it’s bringing out his fans, who say “give ‘em hell, pat!” if his new hampshire primary predictions are off, you sure can give him hell. and he’ll dish it right back.
personally, when i think of applesauce, i think of peter brady’s “porkchops and applesauce” line from “the brady bunch”(photo by www.ytmnd.com)…
January 8th, 2008
our poplar grove tornado drew national attention, but we were just part of the story. the storm caused significant damage in missouri and wisconsin as well.
here are links to other coverage.
the chicago tribune was more interested in the damage in kenosha county, wis., so poplar grove is mentioned lower in its story. the sun-times and daily herald had a little less. the northwest herald hit harvard pretty hard.
the milwaukee journal sentinel is playing weather as its no. 2 story online.
kenosha and racine also have stories and photos.
(eddy montville took this photo at the apple orchard for rrstar.com on monday.)
final note: thanks to our media partner, wrex-13. they shared video and photos for our site.
UPDATE: a co-worker saw that “good morning america” was in poplar grove this morning with a mention of the orchard. did you see it?
