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KENNEWICK -- Each year about this time, newspapers nationwide publish their lists of the top stories of the year.
These lists generally are compiled by editors and reporters, but how do they compare with what readers think were the top stories?
One way to figure this out is to see the most-read stories online.
While the Tri-City Herald's website does not have nearly the readership of the pulp edition, looking at the top stories online can provide an accurate peek at the biggest stories of the year.
We measure traffic by page views, a term that basically means a story has been opened on a web browser. And because of the way we measure traffic, a page view is counted only if a human actually opens a story (not a site such as Google.com, which regularly indexes sites and can greatly inflate a site's traffic).
Here are the top stories in 2009 according to readers of www.tricityherald.com.
1. Washington sends $1 food stamp checks to 250,000
This Associated Press story received 201,306 page views, making it by far the most popular story of the year. It published Feb. 23 and was linked to by The Drudge Report, which sent the vast majority of the traffic to our site. In fact, we received 181,915 referrals from Drudge and 6,462 referrals from Digg.com, another aggregation site. Without Drudge, this story would not have made our top 1,000 stories of the year.
2. Video clears coach in autistic child assault
This story by reporter Paula Horton hit our site Nov. 2 and was explosive, thanks to the accompanying video that cleared retired Richland coach Frank Teverbaugh. The story received 32,153 page views and hundreds of comments. While the majority of traffic was local, this story did get a boost from 11,398 referrals from dlisted.com, a news aggregation site.
3. Driver fills tank in Richland, drains bank
Some stories are so goofy, they draw lots of interest for their "Would you believe that?" appeal. Such was the case of Juan Zamora, a Hanford worker who stopped in Richland to gas up his car and was charged $81.4 billion by his bank. Written by John Trumbo, this story published Feb. 26. But what should have been interesting for three or four days kept getting traffic for three months, thanks to StumbleUpon.com, a website that lets users recommend stories to their friends. In fact, May was the biggest month for this story, when it received more than 10,000 page views. In all, it brought in 24,558 page views.
4. Self-proclaimed Antichrist loses bid in divorce court to protect church assets
This story from The Associated Press published on tricityherald.com Jan. 12 and brought in 21,079 page views. Just like our No. 1 story for the year, it wasn't necessarily important to Mid-Columbia readers. Rather, Fark.com, a news aggregation site, sent 17,319 readers to our site, few of whom were local.
5. Palin participates in Turkey Trot
Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spent Thanksgiving with family in the Tri-Cities -- and generated a whole lot of traffic physically (at the Turkey Trot and her book signing) and online. This story received 20,692 page views, with about half of it referred by other sites.
6. 2 young girls in critical condition after I-182 crash
This tragic story occurred Oct. 5, when a car crash on Interstate 182 in Pasco took the lives of Alexandra Hatley, 12, and Taylor Tefft, 11, both of Richland. The story was written by reporter Kristin M. Kraemer and received 18,896 page views.
7. Mysterious artwork appears in Richland yard
Reporter Drew Foster wrote this story Oct. 11. It was one of those goofy stories that pop up on a weekend but caught the fancy of web readers, thanks to Fark.com, which referred 9,468 users, and reddit.com, which sent 2,515 more. In all, the story received 18,859 page views.
8. 'District 9:' Another sci-fi flop?
Gary Wolcott, who has written movie reviews for the Herald since 1992, launched a popular blog on our Atomictown.com site a couple of years ago.
His Aug. 15 review of the science fiction film District 9 caught the attention of website readers, thanks to Google, which referred 4,442 users, and RottenTomatoes.com, which sent another 4,200. The story received 10,251 page views.
9. Check out latest gadgets at annual Pasco Ag Show
What would seem like a routine story was published Jan. 5. But thanks to a link on Yahoo.com, we received 3,216 additional readers. As a result, this story brought in 10,188 page views.
10. Walmart shooting text a hoax, police say
This story, which published March 19, was not local. Rather, an internet rumor that a shooting at a Walmart was part of a gang initiation caused quite an uproar. Our story received 9,915 page views, thanks in part to Yahoo, which referred 4,407 users to our site.
* Andy Perdue is the Herald's director of interactive media.
