Good stories, more readers

The chart above gives a quick summary of our page views since Rye News‘ first complete year of publication in 2015  – and the figures keep reaching new heights – though, inevitably, the figures drop off each year on the eve of Christmas – and not all the peaks and lows can be explained.

And, given what 2020 was like, with lockdowns and the cancellation of many events and activities, stories were much harder to find than usual – and there were inevitably fewer stories than previous years when, for example, major events like Rye Arts Festival and the Jazz Festival ran.

But the table below is more helpful as it shows what you are most interested in, and what annoyed or pleased you most, as you have the figures for both the number of views each individual story had – and, perhaps more importantly, how many comments the stories attracted – during the past year.

And, since the chart gives both the title of the story and the date it was published, you should be able to find it again to see what got you so worked up – or pleased.

Surprisingly, perhaps, the story about William the Conqueror landing in the Brede Valley before the 1066 Battle of Hastings – rather than on the far side of Hastings – attracted most interest – but perhaps a lot of historians in Hastings googled it!

The bikers on Strand Quay inevitably attracted a lot of attention – as did parking – and of course stories about Covid got your attention too.

As Rye News has usually published around 25 to 30 stories a week (at least) in a very difficult year for all the media, this steadily increasing engagement since 2015 when our online newspaper first had figures for a full year is very welcome.

The graph below shows the number of users each week since 2015.

Image Credits: Rye News library .