Sentinel.com blog

The Sentinel website, staff blogs and mobile apps received more than 4.8 million page views for the month of January. Below we’ve included a list of most-viewed stories. The list is topped, unfortunately, by an account of a man who adopted an unusual fighting technique. The story was picked up on the front page of fark.com and received more than 20,000 page views.

Those kind of stories, even when they get some viral attention, don’t drive the most traffic on the site. The Sentinel home page received more than 870,000 views. Photo galleries, led by shots from the Mavericks Invitation, this year and years past, generated more than 110,000 views. The Sentinel calendar (look for February updates to the most-used online calendar in the county) accounted from more than 85,000 views.

Of the total of close to 5 million views, about 20 percent (just shy of 1 million) came from mobile apps for iPhone, Android and iPad that didn’t exist in January 2011, and more than 370,000 came from m.santacruzsentinel.com – viewed on mobile web browsers.

Upcoming projects include the launch of updated tourism pages, a new commenting system (hint: Disqus), calendar updates (hint: Eventful), site redesign, continued work with the Santa Cruz Community Media Lab, more extensive use of photos.santacruzsentinel.com for local photo presentations, updates to Sentinel staff blogging platforms, an updated content management system, development of local apps from our newsroom, and we’ve been experimenting with interesting possibilities from rebelmouse.com.

With all kinds of hard work from Kirby Scudder and Wallace Baine, we’ve also launched The Muse blog – for all things related to the Creative Life in Santa Cruz County. Sign up for e-mail updates for all new posts (bottom right of the blog) to be connected with the best art & entertainment coverage.

Thanks to all who visited the Sentinel online, on your phones, tablets, and to our print and e-edition subscribers. We’re taking your news tips and suggestions 24/7.

Most viewed stories for January:

1. Man drops drawers during fight challenge on West Cliff Drive, police said
2. Galactic surprise: New find overturns theories how our galaxy evolved
3. Teen with dad, dog drives off Santa Cruz wharf
4. Driver strikes cyclist on Branciforte Drive, then crashes into concrete divider
5. Killer whales on the hunt in the Monterey Bay
6. Newsmaker 2012: Fatal party bus incident under review by Santa Clara County prosecutors
7. Dave’s Gourmet Albacore ends 13-year run in Santa Cruz
8. Scotts Valley-area man missing since Friday
9. Images released of fake doctor in Santa Cruz hospital heist
10. Felton woman injured in 2009 Mount Hermon Road crash dies
    

The story of the effort to steer the San Lorenzo River away from the historic Santa Cruz Boardwalk was among the most viewed of 2012 on the Sentinel website. Dan Coyro photo

Crime, surf and sea creatures were among the most popular subjects on the Sentinel’s website in 2012.

The site received more than 41 million page views through early December of 2012 and the Sentinel’s mobile apps (iPhone and Android introduced in February, iPad in November), received another 6 million views.

The Sentinel welcomed more than 4.6 million unique annual visitors to the site.

The most viewed local story of 2012 was on the tragic stabbing death of Shannon Collins on Broadway. Collins, who ran a popular downtown business, was walking during the morning of May 7, on her way to a hair appointment, when she was attacked and brutally murderd. Charles Edwards, who was arrested and charged with the crime, was a felon with a violent history who had been earlier released on parole due to a clerical error. Readers grieved, struggled to understand the senseless loss, and offered their support to Collins’ loved ones.
The story received more than 70,000 page views during the year.
The second most viewed story of 2012 was about a woman who gave birth to a baby girl in the lobby of the county jail. The woman had been arrested on suspicion of being drunk in public on a Sunday afternoon. Jail staff initially refused to book her because she was pregnant and intoxicated. She was evaluated at Dominican Hospital and then brought back to the jail Sunday evening for booking. On Monday, sober and being released, she gave birth in the lobby, with help from jail medical staff. The baby girl was estimated to be 2 or 3 months premature. The Drudge Report posted a prominent link to the story, which was viewed more than 59,000 times.

Fans of “Chasing Mavericks” may have gone home from the movie and searched online for more information on Santa Cruz surfer Jay Moriarity. When they did, one of the top results was Wallace Baine’s 2010 column marking the 10th anniversary of Moriarity’s accidental death. The story was read more than 44,000 times.

Other most viewed stories included an embedded video made by a Santa Cruz fisherman who captured incredible underwater shots of dolphins swimming with his boat. A shark attack on a kayak near Pleasure Point closed beaches and captured the community’s attention and the story drew more than 20,000 page views. It also prompted Sentinel reporter Jason Hoppin to build a shark attack map, detailing all reported shark attacks in California history. The map also received more than 16,000 page views during the year.

The Sentinel’s online audience continues to grow (page views were up 17 percent this year), and our newsroom is committed to delivering news and the community’s stories across all platforms and devices. We break news on twitter, we share community stories on Facebook. We built a Community Media Lab to connect with and highlight local bloggers (more than 10,000 views of that page). We’ve added more than 1,300 followers on Instagram this year. YouTube videos produced by the Sentinel were watched more than 300,000 times.

Readers were drawn to sex (Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show photos drew more than 60,000 views), to the absurd (Shark falls from sky, lands on California Golf Course – 8,400 views), to up-to-the-moment election coverage (nearly 600,000 page views on election day and the two days following), to the in-depth (Our investigative project on the $123 million proposed desalination project in Santa Cruz generated more than 60,000 views).

We published all public salaries in Santa Cruz County, and those databases drew more than 100,000 views. We worked harder than ever to involve our readers in polls, commentary, in tipping us off to news, and to connect with local bloggers and experts in their fields. The Sentinel events calendar was viewed more than 800,000 times.

We also built partnerships with Santa Cruz Waves (a new surf photo every day on the Sentinel home page), and Cruzio (our top referrer of traffic, more than 340,000 views from their site) and updated our weddings page, updated all subscriber services online, launched community pages and offered an online-first series on the Top 10 Things to Do Before You Die in Santa Cruz (20,000 views). We also offered our first annual Readers Choice voting, and we’re pleased to say that our audience is always reaching out to us, with the “contact us” page receiving more than 60,000 views.

The 10 most-read local stories on the Santa Cruz Sentinel website in 2012:

1. Police call Monday’s stabbing of downtown Santa Cruz business owner ‘unprovoked and random’
2. Woman gives birth to baby girl in lobby of Santa Cruz County Jail early Monday morning
3. On the 10th anniversary of the death of iconic surfer Jay Moriarity, his widow reflects
4. Santa Cruz County Jail escapee apprehended
5. Employee of Santa Cruz business thwarts armed robber by grabbing his gun, police say
6. Daughter of surf shop owner dies after falling out of party bus, CHP says
7. Tuna fisherman posts video of dolphins swimming with underwater ‘torpedo’ camera
8. Shark attacks kayak near Pleasure Point
9. Crews fight off San Lorenzo River to save Boardwalk
10. Granite Rock CEO Bruce Woolpert dies in boating accident

Editor’s note: This post has been updated with the correct count of story views, showing that the story on the stabbing death of Shannon Collins was the most viewed of 2012.

When 15,000-plus runners came to Santa Cruz on Sunday for the 40th annual Wharf to Wharf race, we were ready to meet them. We received more than 40,000 page views on the Sentinel website.

We put to use the following services:

• Twitter – asking any and all to use #wharftowharf hashtag, we added that to the page for continuous updates. Our reporters and photographers also used the tag. Through twitter, we posted photos and video (using the twitvid service) as well as other updates. We were also able to send directly to the Sentinel home page by using another tag, #scsnews. We’ve used an advanced search widget to display tweets from our staff using that tag and always ask reporters to break news on twitter.
• Storify – we gathered photos, video, tweets from our staff, runners and spectators throughout the day, and embedded the collection in the top of our home page. Our collection has received more than 4,000 views. (See below).
• Flickr – We posted staff and contributed photos to the Sentinel Flickr account, where our set has received more than 6,500 views. We took the easily-embedded slideshow and dropped it into coverage and its own article page. We also shared links to the slideshow on Facebook
• Google maps – We updated a map we built long ago to include Panoramio photos from various points along the beautiful race route, shot by Sentinel digital intern Eric Brown.
• Brightcove and YouTube – We shot video along the route. I got to the race early with a smart phone and a Handycam. I tweeted, collected video, sent photos from my phone (DroidX, which went from fully charged to dead in two miles) and then eventually ran most of last four miles of the race (with my daughter in a stroller) while collecting sights and sounds on the Handycam. We posted the video to our site through Brightcove, embedded the video in an article page and have Brightcove set to automatically post to our YouTube channel.
• Instagram (we’re @scsentinel) – we posted just five photos to Instagram, a couple from the race, and a couple of the best from photographer Shmuel Thaler.  We also liked every photo we found for Wharf to Wharf and followed anyone who ran and posted about the race. Our photos received more than 200 likes, we picked up more than 50 followers.
• Digital producer Christina Gullickson orchestrated the show, handling all of the content flowing her way, and she worked to open the doors to user-contributed photos and promoted all our content on the social channels above.
• Sports reporter Andrew Matheson also immediately had final results and compiled his own video, so we had the first stories about the race that were updated in the afternoon
• Two other easy moves added nearly 5,000 views – we posted an early “Wharf to Wharf Information” page and we embedded the results page within our site.

Congrats to all the runners! We probably overdid, but the Sentinel loves the Wharf to Wharf!

• Get the Sentinel iPhone news app
• Get the Sentinel Android news app

The best way to read the Sentinel on your smart phone is on our news apps. They’re free and they’re part of the Sentinel’s commitment to delivering Santa Cruz County news to you in any way you want to receive it. Available now for Android and iPhone.

On Monday, we launched the Santa Cruz e-Edition for the iPad.

It’s a great way to read the Sentinel print edition on the iPad, sparing trees and ink. The app is free, the e-Edition subscription costs a dollar a week, and there’s a free trial period.

We have a wide variety of projects in the works, including a re-design of the Sentinel site, a new content management system project, a re-examination of all things we do digital, both in advertising and the newsroom.

The new content management system is intended to improve our workflow, give us better tools for presenting a wider variety of content, including video, documents, databases, audio, and photos. It will also allow us to be more location-based, connecting readers with what’s happening in their neighborhoods. We’ll be able to publish content more efficiently to more platforms, focusing more on tablets and smartphones.

We’ll have better tools for reader registration and better tools for allowing you to determine where, when and how you read your news from Santa Cruz. The change also includes a better commenting system (no longer through Facebook),

And, not least important, we’re told the upgrade will help the site load quicker. Stay tuned for more updates.

But if you love your iPad, the e-Edition app is worth checking out and exploring. As always, let us know what you think. – Tom

Posted from Los Altos, California, United States.

Here are the 10 most-viewed stories or pages from Monday, Sept. 13, 2011:

1. Deputies: Two arrested in Live Oak after accosting man walking with family
2. Autopsy results show slain Santa Cruz attorney Celestial Cassman died of asphyxiation
3. Teen girl robbed at gunpoint in Soquel
4. Cops and Courts: Sept. 12, 2011: Two arrested after man is accosted
5. Deputies: Two arrested in Live Oak after accosting man walking with family
6. Capitola bank robbed by man claiming to have a bomb
7. Most Wanted suspects surrender in Santa Cruz
8. Database: Santa Cruz County pension obligations, 2011
9. Retired accountant who was in south tower on 9/11: ‘The buildings shook like an earthquake’
10. Orin Martin, Santa Cruz County Stories

Link of the Day: We’re adding football highlight video to this YouTube playlist throughout the season. Assistant Sports Editor Jim Seimas has been great about gathering several clips and uploading them from each game he covers. You’ll see more of this as smart phones get better, video editing tools get easier and we think more about using all available tools for storytelling.

After a month of breaking news that included plane, helicopter and car crashes, and three murders, the Sentinel’s online viewership continues to grow.

We had 3,528,321 page views for the month of July, third highest month ever for the Sentinel. (Top was March of 2011, with storms and tsunami). Second best month was August of 2009 (Lockheed Fire).

We had 866,045 unique daily visitors, also third best month ever for our site (March of 2011 and January 2011 were better).

Among other noteworthy trends, we had 295,461 page views on mobile devices, most ever in a month for our site.

More than 5 percent of our traffic was referred to us from social networks, and 90 percent of that traffic arrived via Facebook and all its forms.

Other July highlights included Wharf to Wharf coverage (more than 45,000 page views) and the reintroduction of the party house database (more than 9,000 page views of our searchable database and more than 26,000 views of new Google map).

Here’s the list of most viewed pages and stories for July:

1.	Home		799,502	22.7%
2.	Verve / SantaCruzSentinel.com		135,140	3.8%
3.	Other		97,462	2.8%
4.	Local News		54,017	1.5%
5.	santacruzsentinelcom – Search Results – News / PG: 1		49,927	1.4%
6.	Obituaries		43,336	1.2%
7.	http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/santacruzsentinel/obituary.aspx		31,728	0.9%
8.	http://events.santacruzsentinel.com/search		25,651	0.7%
9.	http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/santacruzsentinel		21,377	0.6%
10.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2011 Tip of the Hat		20,849	0.6%
11.	http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/santacruzsentinel/guestbook.aspx		20,622	0.6%
12.	Home / Real Estate transactions database		17,383	0.5%
13.	Home / NTSB: Four dead in Watsonville plane crash including two children		16,626	0.5%
14.	http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/doubleclick/DARTIframe.html		16,347	0.5%
15.	Home / Man’s penis cut off, put through garbage disposal		13,155	0.4%
16.	Home / CHP says wrong-way driver intentionally caused fatal Highway 17 crash: Soquel man arrested in		12,686	0.4%
17.	Home / CHP said wrong-way driver intentionally caused fatal crash: Soquel man arrested in collision		12,564	0.4%
18.	Sports		12,367	0.4%
19.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2008 Halloween Costume		11,826	0.3%
20.	Home / ‘Hoarders’ features Boulder Creek property, highlights man’s battle with county		10,949	0.3%
21.	Verve / SantaCruzSentinel.com : Local News		10,867	0.3%
22.	Home / Great White sighting at Beach Boardwalk		9,870	0.3%
23.	Verve / SantaCruzSentinel.com: Local News		9,748	0.3%
24.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2011 O Canada		8,676	0.2%
25.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2008 Baby Face		8,599	0.2%
26.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2011 Fancy Food		8,596	0.2%
27.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2011 Board Art		8,532	0.2%
28.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2011 Boys and Girls of Summer		8,513	0.2%
29.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2010 Thanks Giving		8,413	0.2%
30.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2011 Watch the Birdie		8,327	0.2%
31.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2008 Best Tattoo		8,212	0.2%
32.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2010 Almost Famous		8,174	0.2%
33.	http://www.uclick.com/client/scs/gpd		7,971	0.2%
34.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2011 The Eyes Have It		7,770	0.2%
35.	Letters		7,750	0.2%
36.	Local News / Woman identified in wrong-way fatal crash in Santa Cruz		7,588	0.2%
37.	Home / Woman identified in wrong-way fatal crash in Santa Cruz		7,406	0.2%
38.	Home / Airplane nose dives into Watsonville Community Hospital, two people dead		7,008	0.2%
39.	Home / Party house database: Santa Cruz Police list, with map, of houses cited for loud and unruly b		6,742	0.2%
40.	Home / Father killed cancer patient son, then himself in home near Los Gatos, officials say		6,477	0.2%
41.	Weather		6,430	0.2%
42.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2009 Retro 70′s		6,311	0.2%
43.	Home / Two dead in Watsonville police standoff on Lawrence Avenue		6,296	0.2%
44.	Home / Wrong-way driver to make initial court appearance in Santa Cruz as two families mourn		5,928	0.2%
45.	Home / Wrong-way fatal suspect’s plea delayed in Santa Cruz courtroom		5,886	0.2%
46.	Home / Police: 13-year-old boy sexually battered outside bathroom at the wharf		5,874	0.2%
47.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2011 Big Trees		5,804	0.2%
48.	Home / Community mourns death of Houghton family at service in Aptos		5,618	0.2%
49.	Horoscopes		5,514	0.2%
50.	Verve / SantaCruzSentinel.com: Cops and Courts		5,507	0.2%

Total

3,528,321

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).

On Tuesday, when traffic was snarled for hours on Highway 1 after a wreck near Rio del Mar, our site received more than 166,000 page views, one of the top 20 traffic days on the site. Of those, more than 11,000 were on mobile devices, one of our biggest days ever on mobile. We suspect a few people parked in traffic found our site while they waited.

For the month of June, we had more than 235,000 page views on mobile devices and we’ve had more than 1.3 million mobile views in 2011. For the year, we should just about double our mobile views from 2010 (1,586,219).

We expect mobile to grow at that pace or more as people adopt smartphones and we continue to provide real-time updates as news breaks.

Here’s a look at our mobile traffic since January of 2010 (page views):

2010:
Jan.: 95,016
Feb.: 84,139
March: 98,733
April: 120,291
May: 141,245
Jun: 133,360
July: 136,620
Aug: 140,724
Sept.:140,916
Oct.: 163,248
Nov.: 171,638
Dec.: 160,289

2010:
Jan.: 191,391
Feb.: 174,728
March.: 245,575
April: 217,856
May: 226,191
June: 237,944

Overall for the month of June, mobile is still a small percentage of our 3,301,320 page views. Our monthly unique viewers were up to 472,133, as compared to 369,495 in 2010. Here’s a look at the most-viewed pages the past month:

	Page		Page Views
1.	Home		741,196	22.5%
2.	Verve / SantaCruzSentinel.com		108,931	3.3%
3.	Other		91,842	2.8%
4.	http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/doubleclick/DARTIframe.html		84,024	2.5%
5.	Sentinel Forum		52,519	1.6%
6.	santacruzsentinelcom – Search Results – News / PG: 1		47,460	1.4%
7.	Local News		41,836	1.3%
8.	Obituaries		38,067	1.2%
9.	http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/santacruzsentinel/obituary.aspx		32,290	1.0%
10.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2011 Boys and Girls of Summer		23,786	0.7%
11.	http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/santacruzsentinel		22,164	0.7%
12.	http://events.santacruzsentinel.com/search		21,613	0.7%
13.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2011 Congradulations		17,879	0.5%
14.	Home / Real Estate transactions database		17,589	0.5%
15.	http://www.legacy.com/guestbook/santacruzsentinel/guestbook.aspx		15,646	0.5%
16.	Verve / SantaCruzSentinel.com : Local News		14,928	0.5%
17.	Sports		13,062	0.4%
18.	Home / Body found near UCSC campus likely victim of hit and run		12,782	0.4%
19.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2008 Halloween Costume		10,432	0.3%
20.	Verve / SantaCruzSentinel.com : Cops and Courts		9,864	0.3%
21.	Weather		9,838	0.3%
22.	Home / Helicopters fly crash victims from Highway 1 in Aptos		9,834	0.3%
23.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2008 Best Tattoo		9,724	0.3%
24.	Home / Police shoot and kill 22-year-old Watsonville man inside sporting goods store		9,652	0.3%
25.	Home / Woman ditches her bikini on Highway 17 as CHP officer tries to arrest her for flashing passin		9,548	0.3%
26.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2011 Board Art		8,709	0.3%
27.	http://www.uclick.com/client/scs/gpd		8,312	0.3%
28.	Letters		7,641	0.2%
29.	Home / A Nightmare for neighbors		7,474	0.2%
30.	Home / Santa Cruz fatal hit-and-run defendant pleads not guilty		6,683	0.2%
31.	Home / Arrest details emerge in case of bicyclist killed on Empire Grade Road		6,421	0.2%
32.	Home / Man who died trying to cross Highway 1 identified		6,199	0.2%
33.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2011 O Canada		6,192	0.2%
34.	http://www.uclick.com/client/scs/cpa		5,749	0.2%
35.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2009 Retro 70′s		5,625	0.2%
36.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2010 Thanks Giving		5,617	0.2%
37.	Horoscopes		5,572	0.2%
38.	Home / Bicyclist dies on Soquel-San Jose Road		5,541	0.2%
39.	Local News / Body found near UCSC campus likely victim of hit and run		5,269	0.2%
40.	http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/santacruzsentinel/obituary-browse.aspx		5,268	0.2%
41.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2011 Spring Has Sprung		5,209	0.2%
42.	http://santacruzsentinel.kaango.com/browse/real-estate-rental-sale/775		5,107	0.2%
43.	Home / Eye of the storm: Man seeks owner of camera that was lost at sea in 2007		5,051	0.2%
44.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2011 Watch the Birdie		4,977	0.2%
45.	Home / Dominican Hospital fined $50,000 for patient death		4,939	0.1%
46.	RSS / Body found near UCSC campus likely victim of hit and run		4,926	0.1%
47.	Home / CHP: Car in fatal hit-and-run found		4,843	0.1%
48.	Opinion		4,705	0.1%
49.	Santa Cruz Sentinel Photo Contest : 2010 Almost Famous		4,695	0.1%
50.	Home / CHP interviews driver in Monday’s fatal bicycle crash in Soquel		4,656	0.1%
	Total		3,301,320

Would you like a text message from the Sentinel the next time a tsunami is headed toward Santa Cruz?

We’ve added a significant news alert option for readers. We’ll only use it for breaking news likely to affect most Santa Cruz County residents.

Here’s how to sign up. Go to our mobile edition sign-up page. Enter your phone number, confirm, and you’re in. We expect to send messages maybe once a month with the biggest stories to affect the area – fires, earthquakes, significant public safety issues, huge traffic snarls. You can cancel any time.

We also offer daily weather reports and we’ll add more categories in the future, but we wanted to offer readers  this option now.