 Now we're going to give you two numbers: 71,000 is the first. In the
world of websites, each story is considered a "page." Our counter
tells us that on average for July 2011, 71,000 pages per issue were
viewed on Lincoln Daily News, a jump of 7 percent over the previous
quarter's monthly average of 63,000. And the total of page views for the last
12 months comes in at 16.7 million.That is an exceptionally large
number for a newspaper in a county our size. On average, Nielsen
reports that readers read five pages every time they visit a
newspaper online. Our stats show our readers read between 11 and 17
pages when they visit LDN. That tells us we are on the right track:
to give you local news and content that you can't find anywhere
else.
Here's another number for you: 87 percent. This is the estimated
percentage of viewers who live in Lincoln or Logan County. This
number is so important to us and to our advertisers because it shows
us and them that it is local folks who are enjoying the daily news
brought to them by LDN.
Since creating our page on Facebook, we now have a whole new set
of numbers that we get to look at and ponder.
Here's one for you: 63,643. According to Facebook this is "the
number of times people (fans and non-fans) have viewed a News Feed
Story posted by your page" from June 1 through July 30. That means that our
page has averaged over 1000 hits a day. That's a pretty impressive number
that tells us our decision to become a part of one of the world's
most popular social networking sites was probably a good one.
And, here is one last number: 191. This is the number of people
on Facebook who have chosen to "like" LDN in our first 50 days.
If that trend continues, LDN's page could very well have 1,500
likes by this time next year. For most people, that would be a
pretty good projection, but for us, well, we want more.
Our purpose behind doing a Facebook page was to offer convenience
to those who use Facebook daily, by giving them snips of what they
will find when they go to LDN, giving them links to local coverage,
and promoting a more interactive space where readers can comment and
offer their input on what they have read.
We very much enjoy the comments we've received so far and love it
when a fan chooses to add a like to an individual story.
To that end, we're going to hold a little contest on Facebook. In
order to qualify, you have to like our page. Doing this is quite
simple. Go to the front page of LDN and scroll down until you see
the button on the left-hand side that says, "Join us on Facebook.
Click here." Click on the button.
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When our Facebook page comes up, at the top of the screen log in
as yourself, and then click on the like button beside our name.
That's it, you're done, and you are now on our roll of likes. And
you have entered yourself in our contest to have a favorite story
written just because you requested it.
When our number of likes reaches 400, we will draw one name at
random, and that person will get the opportunity to tell us what
story they would like to see us publish.
The story can be about you and something interesting you've done
or are doing. It can be about someone in the community you know who
does something great and never gets credit for it, or it can be
about a charity or business that you think deserves a pat on the
back, or if you have a completely different idea, that too can be
considered.
Our managing editor, Mike Fak, will reserve the right to ask you
to choose another topic if it's something we've already done or if
it's an issue he feels would not be suitable for our publication.
"What we're looking for," Fak said, "is to do feel-good stories
for and about people in our community -- something similar to the
Personality of the Week stories that were so popular."
Fak also said that if the contest works out well this time, we
may do it again in the future, so even if your name doesn't get
drawn the first time, you may very well get a second chance.
We at LDN are hoping that this will be the start of making our
readers more interactive on our FB page and give them the
opportunity to tell us what they want to see out of our publication.
LDN has long said that our daily issue belongs to our readers. It
is for and about you and the issues that are important to you. We
hope that everyone will take an opportunity to become more involved
in their local news.
Oh, and LDN will continue to offer all of our content 100 percent free.
We always have been free to readers. We always will be.
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