Sentinel.com blog

The Sentinel website continued to grow at a strong pace in 2011. Here’s a quick rundown of the year-end statistics:

• We increased page views: 38,168,835 in 2012, up slightly from 38,090,454 in 2010.

In changing commenting systems in late 2010, we no longer required readers to make an extra click to get to story comments. We did away with more than 2.5 million page views because of it, but readers stayed on our pages longer, were more clearly responsible for their comments and our staff was better able to manage the abusive comments and spend more time on making the most of the news.

• We increased unique annual visitors to 5,081,707. That’s up more than 1 million from 4,036,868 in 2010.

We think unique visitors is a better measure than page views in the past year (because the growth is bigger!) and because of the comment change. But data also shows that people are coming to the Sentinel on multiple devices. We launched an e-edition app for iPad in 2011 and we’re launching a news app in 2012.

We also had several big events (the tsunami and Capitola floods) and a couple of viral moments (a story about pot in soda) that brought in a healthy chunk of one-time visitors.

• Through our Brightcove video account, we had 166,529 video plays. On YouTube, we had 519,501.

Video will become a bigger part of everything we do online as it becomes easier to upload, edit and share on mobile devices. We also added a GoPro camera at year’s end, and we hope to do cool things with it. Still seeking daredevils of all sorts to wear the camera.

• We expect to continue to grow and continue to emphasize digital products in 2012.

The Sentinel online staff has added a great producer, Christina Gullickson, and the newsroom staff’s pace of change is accelerating. The company is (still) working on a new content management system that will help us with everything from design to commenting to page creation to print workflow and multi-platform presentations.

Want to get more involved with the Sentinel website? We’ve got internships, a community connections section in development and we’re open to all kinds of collaborations to connect our audience with good ideas around Santa Cruz. Contact us!

Posted from Santa Cruz, California, United States.

We’ve heard from plenty of readers that they were interested in an iPad/iPhone app for the Sentinel and we’re working on various possibilities locally. (Want to help? let us know.) And at the same time, there are a variety of corporate strategies in the works for tablet users.

The coolest out there, and the biggest jump forward in technology is a product called TapIn Bay Area, which was launched this week.

You’ll see more of TapIn on our site, but it’s optimized for the touch screen. It’s hyperlocal and regional at the same time. It integrates news, advertising, deals, events, a business directory and user content, and is easily navigatable and searchable and gamified.

Here are a few links to reviews of the new app. Free trials here. (It will cost $4.99/month in the future).

• Ken Doctor: MediaNews’ new TapIn bets on the tablet
• From Poynter: How TapIn plans to master location-based news for the iPad
• From Street Fight: Local news + Google Maps + Social Media = TapIn

You’ll find Sentinel written stories and events from our online calendar all over the Santa Cruz map, but most of the links will send you to the Mercury News version of our content. (We’ll see if we can fix that).

The Sentinel online department is looking for one good intern. Can you code? Know HTML/CSS? We’d love to find a young coding star. But we’re also open to smart, talented people looking to get a start in the online news world. Are you an aspiring social media guru? Want to gamify the Sentinel site? Have an idea for a Santa Cruz-specific multimedia project? Can you report breaking news anywhere at any time via smartphone? Video/photo skills?

Possibilities are unlimited. Please share this post with smart students you know who are still looking for an interesting summer opportunity. To apply, e-mail us a resume and cover letter: tmoore@santacruzsentinel.com.