« Splashing about | Adrian Seal Blog : Editor - Uxbridge Gazette Homepage | Competition headache »
August 2, 2007
Doom and gloom
You can usually judge the weekly sales figures of the Gazette against the strength of the front page story.
It's fair to say that generally when you have a front page splash which relates to a tragic event or major crime you will sell more newspapers.
I have also been looking closely at which stories attract the most hits on our website and once again it's doom and gloom that generally prove the most popular.
If you take the month of July for example the three most viewed articles on the site were:
1. Man accused appears in court (relating to a murder charge)
2. Gang set light to teen in prank
3. Vandals hit auto show site
While some readers argue for less doom and gloom in our papers and on our website, the figures do speak for themselves, tragic events and crime sell papers.
We will be looking more closely at the sales figures of the Gazette this morning when I attend a management meeting which, judging by the agenda, promises to be a long affair.
This will then be followed be several other meetings this afternoon so by the end of the day I will probably need a long sleep in a darkened room!
However, I am starting the day in a positive frame of mind. This is probably mainly due to another morning of beautiful summer sunshine and the fact I enjoyed an excellent curry last night with my daughter at our favourite Indian restaurant.
This was rounded off with a late night glass of red wine in the garden as I watched a most magnificent sun set over the Surrey Downs - it seems that summer has really arrived.
Posted by aseal at August 2, 2007 7:37 AM
Comments...
Adrian, I think it's the same around the world. Readers often complain but the facts are that crime and the like do sell papers. And publishers are only giving the readers what they want, right ?
Andrew.
Comment posted by: Andrew at August 2, 2007 11:31 AM