Most-viewed items on NewsOK in October
It’s Halloween, which means it’s a fine time to review the most-viewed content on NewsOK.com in October 2011.
Before I go any further, though, I should point out that October was a great month for web traffic on NewsOK, but it didn’t quite break our all-time record. There are a few hours left, but it looks like we will fall just a few hundred thousand page views short of the all-time record-breaking month of September 2011. (It seems like so long ago).
In October, we can thank these fine pieces of content for our strong traffic.
Most-viewed article
Sonya Colberg
Sonya Colberg’s piece about a cancer patient who traded her life so her baby could survive led all our stories in October. The story went viral, mostly being shared through Facebook. It was linked on other national websites like Huffington Post and FoxNews and a multitude of blogs and niche sites, but the greatest traffic was from Facebook.
Frankly, that’s a little surprising. Generally, when a NewsOK story goes viral, it’s aided by national sites and most of the traffic generated for the article comes from that site. But in the case of Sonya’s story, Facebook drove the bulk of the traffic — twice as many referrals as Huffington Post.
It shows that this story really went viral. One person shared with their friends, who shared with their friends, and so on. It deserved the attention, too. Sonya did a great job telling this story.
Most-viewed video:
This one was easy.
Travis Haney
Second most-viewed story
OU reporter Travis Haney’s piece about Bob Stoops and the coach’s propensity for misleading media and, therefore, fans about the injury situation of the players on his team.
This story received quite a bit of feedback in our comments section and on social media.
Berry Tramel
Most-viewed blog post
Berry Tramel’s blog post about the Big 12 Conference realignment news last week led our blogs for the month. West Virginia was invited to the Big 12. Then it wasn’t invited. Then it was invited again.
It made for a good Berry blog.
Most-viewed photo gallery
This really seems like a long time ago. The photo gallery from the OU-Texas football game was our most-viewed photo gallery of the month.
There are 126 photos to look at, so take your time.
The Oklahoman local desk seeking experienced reporter
The Oklahoman is looking for a reporter.
From what will soon be posted on JobsOK.com:
The Oklahoman seeks an aggressive general assignment reporter, with 2-3 years of journalism experience, good writing skills, a hunger to be first with a story and a passion to be on the front page and at the top of our award-winning NewsOK website. Experience with multimedia and social media a plus. E-mail resume and writing samples to Local Editor Rick Green, rmgreen@opubco.com.
Before-and-after images from Japan
The horrible news coming out of Japan in the aftermath of Friday’s earthquake and tsunami is nothing less than depressing. We’ve been following it on NewsOK with updates to news stories as we see them on the wires. We even created a massive photo gallery on Friday that drove a lot of page views the day of the event.
Last night, we posted an AP Interactive that has, among many other items, before-and-after images from Google Earth. The AP Interactive had tons of great information, and we still highly recommend using it to see news updates and well-done informational graphics on how a tsunami forms.
But here’s an even higher recommendation: If you want to see a remarkable presentation on the before-and-after photos, try ABC News’ interactive presentation — “Japan Earthquake: before and after.” We didn’t produce it. AP didn’t produce it. But it’s another good way to begin to understand the massive ramifications of the tsunami. Their world just disappeared in a matter of minutes.
Check it out:
The Oklahoman reaches yet another device — this time it’s the Nook
I wrote at length late last week about our inclusion in the iPad App Store. I talked about how proud we were that daily editions of The Oklahoman were now available on the iPad.
In that piece, I talked about our mission to reach news consumers in any way they want to be reached. And it truly is our mission. To quote our publisher, David Thompson:
“We will continue to provide news and information content for our customers when, where and how they want it.”
That quote came from the story I wrote that appeared in The Oklahoman and on NewsOK last Sunday.
But just to prove the point to be true, I feel compelled to point out that we also recently became available on the Nook for purchase at the Barnes and Noble eNewspaper Store.
Our own Jay Spear blogged about it in his new blog on NewsOK, titled Proof of Concept.
I went to Barnes &Noble off Memorial this week to tell them about The Oklahoman being available and to replace the battery on our nook. They were excited. They said a number of buyers ask when The Oklahoman will be available on the nook.
So, we continue to make strides toward our publisher’s mission. We are in as many spots as we reasonably can be as quickly as we reasonably can be.
Or as Jay put it in the last line of his blog:
After all, we just tell the stories. You get to choose where to read them.
A search on wimgo sparks memories of a past career at Legend’s restaurant
So I was browsing NewsOK.com the other day. I tend to do that as part of my job description.
On the day in question, the NewsOK editors were featuring some restaurant profiles from wimgo near the top of the NewsOK home page. You’ve probably seen them below our top stories along the left side of the home page.
I hope you’re already familiar with wimgo.com. It’s an outstanding search solution for businesses, restaurants, events, venues … well, just about anything, really. It serves the NewsOK audience very well as a terrific local search solution, but it’s truly a nationwide solution. You can find similar data for business, restaurants, events and more from anywhere in the country.
The restaurant that we were linking to just happened to be a restaurant where I spent about 2 1/2 years working while in college at OU.
It was Legend’s Restaurant, and it was the first place I applied when arriving in Norman in 1993. I stopped and applied after asking a friend, who had already been living in Norman, “What’s the nicest restaurant in town?” I walked in, filled out an application, went home, came back for an interview and had a job — all in one day. My college career was off and running.
I remember my time working as a cook there very fondly (even if some of those memories aren’t so flattering).
- I remember jumping in the pool in the apartments behind the restaurant after a long day in the heat of the kitchen. (‘Trespassing’ is how some people refer to it.)
- I remember running late many Sunday mornings for my brunch shift. (8 a.m. comes awful early for a 20-year-old.)
- I remember making the shift manager very angry one slow Monday night after being caught taking an undocumented break for a tobacco product (a habit I shook long ago). I was lucky he kept that one quiet.
- I remember making plenty of rookie mistakes on the line in the heat of a busy night.
- I remember my bosses being very good and very patient to many college students who worked there.
- I remember making some very good friends through those connections.
- I remember the day Howard Schnellenberger and his wife left the restaurant, unhappy with my food — something Berry Tramel wrote about in a column years later.
But my favorite memory came in late summer of 1994. I had just spent the summer months in my hometown and returned to Norman.
For some reason, I thought I didn’t want to return to work at Legend’s. I wanted to try a different restaurant. I secured a job at the restaurant where Coach’s currently resides on Main Street, but I can’t even remember the name of the restaurant at that time.
Friends who still worked at Legend’s had mentioned that the kitchen manager/chef wondered why I didn’t come back in for a job now that I was back in town. I was moving on to bigger things, I thought. I was sitting pretty — a highly sought-after cook in the Norman restaurant world.
But then I went in for my first shift at the new restaurant. It wasn’t fun. They were short-handed, so I spent the night washing the dishes. I have nothing against washing dishes. I worked with some great dishwashers, but I couldn’t keep up. And I didn’t have much fun. And I didn’t make new friends. And my shift didn’t end until after 1 a.m.
I don’t remember that anyone was necessarily mean to me or that the working environment was a bad one. But I still didn’t like it. It wasn’t a great first day.
So the next morning, before I went to my classes at OU, I drove to Legend’s, said hello to some old friends and requested to see the kitchen manager, Rabecca (seen in the wimgo video below). I told her that I made a mistake by seeking other employment and requested my previous job as a cook. We worked out a work schedule on the spot, and I was back in. The only thing I needed to do was call the other restaurant and tell them that I wasn’t going to return. That was one of my least-favorite phone calls.
I worked at Legend’s until my journalism career became a real thing while still on the campus of OU. I became the sports editor of The Oklahoma Daily, so my cooking career ended in 1996.
But I was there in 1995. I was there for the Schnellenberger “Legend’s incident.”
An aside about the Howard Schnellenberger story … This came from The Oklahoman’s story by Bob Hersom on Dec. 24, 1995. (Note that I had no connection with The Oklahoman at that time.)
The tale has grown into something of a monumental and high-dollar confrontation between the owner of longtime Norman restaurant Legend’s and Schnellenberger and his wife.
Like most rumors, reality turns out less intriguing. In this case, it boiled down to some disagreement over whether cheese should have been added to the coach’s omelet and whether his wife’s toast was toasted properly.
For the record, Bob’s report was spot on.
And this from the man that used to sign my paycheck:
“The food was not prepared the way they wanted it, and they were disgruntled,” Legend’s owner Joe Sparks said. “It was our fault. “
Correction … it was mostly my fault.
But back to my time at Legend’s. I didn’t have a career in the restaurant industry, but I learned plenty. I learned that I like working hard. I learned that having a good employer that will pay for an honest day’s hard work is something to be thankful for.
I learned that nobody will just give you anything, but if you find the right people you might catch a break.
And I learned that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of town.
And all those thoughts were stirred up after I saw the Legend’s page on wimgo, linked from NewsOK.com.
That’s the other life lesson: You can find lots of cool stuff on wimgo.com (but you already knew that).
Today in History shows us windows to the past
The Oklahoman Archives is a product we’ve had for a long time. It serves our customers that see a great value in more than 100 years of history stored nicely away in a searchable vault.
You can sign up for one day ($8.95), one month ($33.00), three months ($78.00), six months ($140.00) or one year ($248.00).
But thanks to a sponsorship from Devon Energy, access to The Oklahoman’s archives is free to local schools throughout the state.
It’s been that way for many years, but we have added a new feature to our archives product. it’s called the Today in History page, and you can find it at the bottom of the left-hand rail of the archives page.
The Today in History page page shows users the big stories that happened in the past and notable birthdays for any given date. I mean, really, how else are you going to know about “Mean” Joe Greene’s 64th birthday?
Image from The Oklahoman, Sept. 24, 1910.
But the coolest addition to this page is the images from The Oklahoman’s front page dating back 25 years, 50 years, 75 years and 100 years.
Granted, all you can see are the big headlines (unless you dive deeper in our pay archives), but I always find old newspaper front pages fascinating. It’s amazing how we once all managed to survive without proper use of “white space” on our daily newspaper.
But we also didn’t wear seat belts all the time back then.
And we played football without appropriate helmets.
And we unapologetically ate bacon every morning.
At any rate, the Today in History page will make you think a lot about how times have changed.
Hot Ink launches 2010 edition
Every year, members of the news and information center for OPUBCO Communications Group work with a group of high school students to share wisdom and experience with young people who have an interest in journalism.
It’s called Newsroom 101, and the public-facing result is Hot Ink, and annual publication and web page created by and for high school students in central Oklahoma.
The latest installment of Hot Ink has been unveiled. You can see how the students of 2010 cover their community about what they think about the future of newspapers and the future of journalism.
Check it out at Hot Ink.
Something is going on with Apple
Yesterday, I saw this post on Twitter – only because someone I follow re-tweeted it:
OK, the newborn next door and my dead grandfather have finally released their Apple Tablet Speculation articles. Phew, that’s everyone ever.
This post came from Jason Santa Maria from Brooklyn, N.Y. It was one of many clever posts on Twitter about the impending announcement today at noon. We can expect today’s announcement about the tablet (or whatever it is) to be as exciting as the one more than 25 years ago.
We’ve come a long way.
Replay the breaking news chat about morning earthquakes
Earthquakes in Oklahoma startled much of the Oklahoma City area this morning. I was pulled out of a meeting to discuss how to cover the updated news we were getting on NewsOK.
After discussing with News Director Robby Trammell and reporters on our breaking news team, we quickly started a live chat to share the information we were confirming and speak with our audience about their experiences.
You can replay the chat below. Web editor Dane Beavers moderated while taking information from reporters Robert Medley, Johnny Johnson and weather blogger Bryan Painter.
High school huddle warms up the NewsOK high school coverage
It’s almost high school football season. And our sports staff is gearing up for the most in-depth and consistent coverage of high school football that we’ve ever seen online.
Watch below, and stay tuned next week for our new high school coverage page. Just remember this – NewsOK.com is where you can see the inside information from a staff of full-tme reporters delivering daily information about high school football in Oklahoma.
