It is so very traditional for news organizations to do a “Year in Review” at the end of every year. That’s good—because often, the schools are shut down for the holidays and government offices take more days off—and well, life slows down a bit. So there aren’t as many news stories to report and there may not be as many reporters in the newsroom. But, you know, there is something more to that looking back.
Taking a look back is more than just filling white space, which was the case when some of us worked for print newspapers: that’s pretty non-existent online—no space limits or empty space to fill. However, our ‘Auld Lang Syne’ (literally translated from old Scottish dialect meaning ‘Old Long Ago’) gives us pause to consider where we’ve been as we prepare to move forward into 2015.
So we’ll take a look at 2014, but we’re not going to dwell there; in the upcoming week, we’re instead going to look at moving forward.
Our first look back is through the eyes of NBC News (chosen at random from national news organizations) and what they saw as the 2014 top 10 news stories. Their list, 1-10, included Ebola, the Malaysia airlines disasters, the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the rise of ISIS, U.S.-Cuba thawing relationship, conflict in Ukraine, Robin Williams’ suicide, domestic violence and the NFL, space: landing on the surface of a comet.
Now Buzzfeed took a different approach and did the “Year 2014 In Haikus: You only need a few syllables to say goodbye.” Well, it’s entertaining. Here, take a look.
USA Today did a “Year in review: 50 stories from 50 states.” Their story choice for Ohio was about a basketball player: “Lauren Hill inspires the nation.”
For us, analytics tell us exactly what stories were read the most. However, we modified the list a bit to reflect not only what were the most read stories, but what we thought was impactful:
1. The most read story was three new retailers coming to Ontario. It seems our readers like new retail businesses.
2. The next most read story was Roseland and Little Kentucky. Historian Tim McKee keeps community pride growing with stories about the local area.
3. Another new business story, The Vault Wine Bar, combined the restoration of an old building with the bolstering of local entertainment options.
4. The story about Clear Fork graduate Travis Hissong joining the New York Yankees was again a source of community pride as well as inspiration for local athletes.
5. Mansfield City Schools wrestled with recovering from Fiscal Emergency.
6. On a happier note, the announcement of the Polar Xpress returning to Shelby was our most popular entertainment story.
7. Entrepreneurs claimed interest for a number of their ventures but the top one was the closing of Granter’s Grinders while the Altered Eats food truck was the top start-up.
8. There were some page views from unfortunate incidents like the couple that jumped from a train in Shelby and the woman whose body was found just before Christmas in Butler from an apparent suicide, and the fire in Galion that claimed the life of three family members.
9. Our next top story is actually a genre: Unusual Weather. Remember the light pillars, the snow rollers and the frost quakes?
10. And finally, we want to acknowledge stories like the Liquid Nightclub in Lucas that surprised us with its popular makeover story.
Now, let us all look to the new year and new beginnings and telling stories that matter to one another.
