Breaking news drives traffic
Add comment February 19th, 2008
I sent this e-mail to newsroom staffers today detailing Web traffic since the NIU shootings:
Breaking news drives traffic. We are nearing 1 million page views in 5.5 days.
Traffic on rrstar.com is at 940,269 page views (tracked from Feb. 14 through 1:55 p.m. today). Impressive.
If you haven’t taken a look at our special report, please do. There’s lots of good content there: Stories, photos, videos, condolences, headlines from around the world on NIU, Our NIU Alumni blog, audio of Blagojevich’s address and AP stuff (interactive timeline, graphic and videos).
Considering we weren’t alone covering this story, the traffic on our site is incredible.
Some highlights for you (bold numbers indicate NIU-specific traffic to the best of my knowledge):
Day 1, Thursday, Feb. 14, 2008 (50,000 page views, 9,500 on photo gallery)
Total traffic: 215,102 page views
Previous Thursday traffic: 199,883 page views (we had an attorney gunned down the day before)
Average Thursday traffic: 150,000 page views
Figures: 36 updates from 3:33 p.m. to 10:03 p.m.
Day 2, Friday, Feb. 15, 2008 (100,000 page views, 61,300 on photo gallery)
Total traffic: 243,494 page views
Previous Friday traffic: 160,570 page views
Average Friday traffic: 140,000 page views
Figures: 46 updates from 12:12 a.m. until 9:44 p.m.
Day 3, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008 (20,708 page views, 10,000 on photo gallery)
Total traffic: 115,626 page views
Previous Saturday traffic: 111,394 page views (high because of attorney shooting)
Average Saturday traffic: 98,000 page views
Figures: 23 updates from 1:22 a.m. until 9:40 p.m.
Day 4, Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008 (14,505 page views, 5,200 on photo gallery)
Total traffic: 116,997 page views
Previous Sunday traffic: 109,888 page views (high because of attorney shooting)
Average Sunday traffic: 95,000 page views
Figures: 8 updates from 8:11 a.m. until 12:06 a.m.
Day 5, Monday, Feb. 18, 2008 (18,889 page views, 6,300 on photo gallery)
Total traffic: 155,892 page views
Previous Monday traffic: 158,220 page views
Average Monday traffic: 150,000 page views
Figures: 16 updates from 12:06 a.m. until 9:22 a.m. Feb. 19
