When UConn’s news and information website UConn Today was launched in August 2009, it was intended to modernize the way the University communicates with the campus community and with just about everybody else. A news website would give the University the ability and agility to more quickly and effectively disseminate UConn news, and to do so in ways that a weekly newspaper could not. (Full disclosure: the fact that publishing stories online was free as opposed to the high cost of printing didn’t hurt either.)
At first, some were dubious about whether or not people would actually visit such a site. As it turns out, those people, including your faithful correspondent, were spectacularly wrong: the site has seen readership grow dramatically with each passing month. In November 2009, the site had just over 19,000 visits; in November 2010 UConn Today had more than 69,000 visits – an all-time high for one month – contributing to a total of more than 592,000 visits and over one million pageviews since it began.
The editorial staff closely watches which stories readers most often visit. This is done to glean what readers’ preferences are – what piques your interest and what doesn’t. We can see which stories you follow closely, and which ones draw only a handful of readers.
Above all, here’s what we now know: you really, really want to know if UConn is closed when it snows. You are practical people, after all. To date, UConn Today’s emergency closings page has been visited more than 84,000 times. Visits spike when it snows, not surprisingly, but perhaps some snowy winters have made the UConn population a little too optimistic that either class or work is off for the day: on Monday, Nov. 8, 0.02 inches of snow fell in Storrs. The emergency closings page saw over 2,100 visits to see whether this merited delay or closing. Really, people? For 0.02 inches?
Closings aside, you value news. Three of the top 10 stories were about the untimely death of Jasper Howard in October 2009. UConn Today ran a piece announcing his passing, as well as stories on a candlelit gathering in his memory and finally, an article when two suspects were arrested by UConn Police.
You also pay careful attention to personnel changes: the departure of President Michael Hogan is also among the most read stories, as was the article announcing the formation of a presidential search committee to identify his replacement.
You care about UConn news, you want to read about the Husky athletic teams, and you want information that is relevant to you, whether it’s about a possible flu outbreak, the demise of a much-maligned e-mail system, the replacement of the oft-reviled Monteith and Arjona buildings or, simply, where you can park.
The top 10 news stories from August 2009 to the present:
2. Gathering Following Jasper Howard’s Death
6. Women’s Basketball Sets Record
8. Construction of New Buildings to Replace Monteith and Arjona
10. UConn Prepared for Flu Outbreak
As an academic institution, stories about faculty research and teaching are of the utmost importance as well. The top 10 academic stories from 2009 to the present:
1. The Effect of Gravity on Plants
2. Art or Porn?
3. Honors Student Values Experience
4. When Men Stare, Women Say Less
5. Lobster Dieoffs Linked to Plastic
10. Running on Empty? Athlete Hydration
An important component of the site has also been the addition of video features, which are on both UConn Today and Youtube.com. The top videos are:
5. Homecoming
9. UConn Researchers and Glucose Sensor
But top 10 lists only paint part of the picture. Some honorable mentions are also in order:
- You enjoy reading about yourselves: the Awards and Honors page sees high traffic and the story on the diverse and high-quality Class of 2014 is among the best read stories of 2010, as is the story about UConn remaining the best public university in New England.
- You’re into UConn Athletics. You are big fans.
- In addition to parking, you are anxious to know about changes to the laundry system in the dorms.
- For faculty, the well read Grants and Patents page serves as a kind of academic honor roll. It’s been viewed nearly 5,000 times.
- When UConn’s chief of police or an administrator talks about Spring Weekend, you listen: more than 4,000 people read messages from Chief Hudd and Student Affairs VP John Saddlemire regarding Spring Weekend this year.
- You’re bananas for a cappella music. Nearly 2,000 people read a story about various UConn a cappella groups. This is rivaled only by your extraordinary interest in and profound love of the Marching Band (see the top 10 videos).
Finally, recognizing the omnipresent role social media now play in many people’s lives, particularly our students and recent alumni, UConn Today set up its own Facebook page and Twitter account. Though we cannot be counted upon to post rambling, somewhat incoherent late-night updates or job-prospect-killing photos, to date, nearly 5,000 people have “liked” the UConn Today Facebook page. You are not as wild about tweeting.
So UConn Today wraps-up its first full calendar year, as students head into finals, feeling pretty good about itself and the direction it’s headed in. The staff at University Communications thanks our many thousands of readers for visiting the site and, as winter approaches, we are already looking forward to the spike in readership that comes from even the most negligible snowfall.
Enjoy the holidays.
