OVER the course of 2020, more people have visited the Bromsgrove Standard website than ever before and we have had almost double the number page views.
From January 1 to now, more than 760,000 have read stories on our site – amounting to 6.7million views – last year the figure was 3.6million.
As you can imagine, Coronavirus articles dominated the top stories – from West Midlands doctors’ concerns about a second wave, which was the most-read piece, to Bromsgrove’s Coronavirus rate being the worst in Worcestershire (May 14).
Other Covid-19 stories in the top ten, included our photographer’s and Standard readers’ pictures of Bromsgrove in lockdown (March 26) and the announcement of the district being in Tier 2.
The pandemic also brought with it positive stories too – we covered the Clap for Our Carers, the district’s response to the crisis, led by Bromsgrove Community Support and featuring other groups and your beautiful ‘Rainbow of Hope’ artwork to honour frontline and key workers.
Crime stories also proved popular, including an armed gang being jailed for a combined 90 years for robberies in Bromsgrove, Barnt Green, Rubery, Longbridge and Northfield and the murder of Zobaidah Salangy.
Other stories attracting tens of thousands of page views included Artrix announcing it had ceased trading (April), Nigel Farage’s controversial visit to the Bromsgrove Hotel and Spa and MP Sajid Javid calling on Dominic Cummings to apologise for his actions following his trip to Barnard Castle.
We also covered important events with picture and video specials – including the socially distanced Bromsgrove and Rubery VE Day street parties and the commemorations on the 75th anniversary of VE Day and Remembrance Sunday 2020.
Among some of the other positive stories proving popular were the Bromsgrove postie hanging up his bag after 24 years, the community coming together to give Bromsgrove’s Ronald Gregory a street party to celebrate his 100th birthday in lockdown and the opening of the BirdBox in the town centre.
The best-read story – across all of our papers in Worcestershire and Warwickshire – was on our Droitwich Standard website – revealing the permanent closure of the Chateau Impney Hotel in April.
We want to thank all of you – our readers – for your support over the past 12 months and wish you a happy and healthy new year.
We look forward to bringing you all the latest news, sport, lifestyle and entertainment in what will hopefully be a brighter 2021.
