Bin Laden doesn't rate on our website

Throughout the 15-year history of tricityherald.com, we've figured out you rarely turn to us for big national and global stories.

There are plenty of sources for stories of national and international prominence, and all we're usually able to do is provide a wire story or something with a local angle.

I recall when Michael Jackson died in June 2009, we posted the story and a gallery at the top of our home page within minutes of it breaking. And we brought in a pathetic 250 page views combined. The same went for the capture and killing of terrorist Osama bin Laden last week. The story we posted rather quickly earned just 700 page views.

Instead, the top story was definitely local in nature. Here's a look at last week's top five stories:

1. W. Richland fire survivor accused of sex with minor (3,177 page views)

2. Cat spends a week alone in camper after SC wreck (2,884 page views)

3. Ex-employee seeks $750,000 for unfair termination of job (2,697 page views)

4. Kennewick cops seeking ID on two theft suspects (2,456 page views)

5. Some feel trembler north of Richland (2,282 page views)

As you can tell just by looking at the headline, our No. 2 story was by no means local. In fact, this was a wire story that appeared in the What the Flux section of our AtomicTown entertainment site. The traffic for this story was generated from 2,736 referrals from Bing, Microsoft's search engine. No idea why we rated on top. A search now puts the Miami Herald as the top source for the story.

On the photo gallery side, bin Laden did rank fourth last week in page views, with the gallery related to his death bringing in 12,022 page views. It was tucked between a gallery that showed work at the Columbia Generating Station and a gallery about a Touchet man who makes furniture out of used wine barrels.

This story was originally published May 10, 2011 at 4:54 PM with the headline "Bin Laden doesn't rate on our website."