Numbers that count
SITTING on this side of “The Media” we have a bird’s-eye view of what stories resonate with people. We are provided with valuable and interesting data daily and weekly about what people consume in our paper, on our website and on social media. It can be enthralling. With a brain that is slanted more toward English and communications, numbers and spreadsheets don’t tend to hold my attention but these reports do. The past couple of weeks have provided an absorbing snapshot of what Cairns people really care about and while some topics are no surprise, others are quirky. Obviously all eyes have been on Cyclone Debbie. As it tracked toward the Tropical North’s coastline, page views on www.cairnspost.com.au skyrocketed. We recorded more than 113,000 page views in one day before it veered south and hit the Whitsundays. Debbie received almost 1.4 million page views over one week. The fact it didn’t hit here didn’t stop readers turning to us for the latest information and while stories about the ravaged areas were the most sought-after, weather for this region made online traffic spike. Days of stifling heat had readers clicking to find out when there would be respite.
Among the many tales of cyclone destruction and the aftermath there was one that caught the attention of the Far North: Debbie the cockatoo. Wind battered and worn, the bird was rescued and cared for by Townsville Bulletin photographer Alix Sweeney before succumbing to its injuries a couple of days later.
This week readers have been turning to us through tragedy and stories of hope. Mum Bec Clarke’s bedside vigil for son Dean Simpson, who is on life support in Townsville Hospital three weeks after a single-vehicle crash; the suspicious death of Cairns woman China Crawford, whose body was found in her Bentley Park unit; and the death of Ricky McCloy, whose body was found inside his vehicle in a Daintree creek.
They’re not easy stories to work on but the Cairns Post does everything it can to humanise headlines.
Crashes and crime involve people, and they’re members of our community who have contributed and touched people’s lives in some way. They are more than just numbers on a report or spreadsheet. And those reports tell us that you think so too. The people of Cairns turn to us for all sorts of reasons. Business, tourism, good-luck stories and health. And while I’m not a fan of reality TV, data shows many of you are. Updates on Married At
First Sight consistently rank in our topfive most read stories online.
From breaking news to entertainment and all the details in between, people in the Tropical North turn to the Cairns
Post. And we’ve got the figures to prove it.
CRASHES AND CRIME INVOLVE PEOPLE, AND THEY’RE MEMBERS OF OUR COMMUNITY WHO HAVE CONTRIBUTED AND TOUCHED PEOPLE’S LIVES IN SOME WAY. THEY ARE MORE THAN JUST NUMBERS ON A REPORT OR SPREADSHEET