Sentinel.com blog

• 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.

The online team has suggested that reporters on the staff choose a day and consider how they would cover their beat if they had only a smartphone.

Coverage might consist of tweets, photos, video, audio interviews, collections of links to what’s going on, text messages, etc. Not sure the web team has enough pull to give the hard-working reporters a day off from the paper-and-ink, but we’re just hoping to make people think.

Suggestions from online readers? What do you want/expect from Sentinel reporters in 2011?