Given that our local websites and social media pages are now viewed by tens of thousands of people every month, we thought it was a good idea to look at the data and see which online stories were the most successful in 2023.
This is not in any way to neglect our loyal and valued readers of printed paper who keep the newspaper going, but the figures do offer an interesting insight into our reading habits.
While crime and police stories inevitably attracted high numbers, it is great to learn that positive stories about new businesses opening were among the top stories of 2023, during what has been a tough year for new and existing companies.
Let's hope that 2024 brings us more cheer and that 'happy' news stories continue to be our most popular articles - we can certainly do with more positive news in our lives!
Here are a few of our top stories online, including the total of page views (page views are the number of times people click on the article).
1. Explosive discovery!
Usually, stories that involve road closures and police cordons don't end well. But there was a huge level of fascination when we reported that the area near the River Leam was closed on a Sunday night (November 5). We were later able to reveal that magnet fishing group the Peaky Dippers had pulled World War Two grenades, bombs, anti-aircraft bullets, guns and more from the river. It was the largest ever known in magnet fishing, according to the group. The bomb squad were called to make sure everything was safe. Online page views: more than 16,000 for the live coverage and follow-up story, including an interview with the Peaky Dippers! Photo: Peaky Dippers
2. Celebrating the Coronation of King Charles III
Our towns and villages came together in 2023 to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III. Local street parties took place across the bank holiday weekend at the start of May as the historic event took place in London. We ran a gallery of your photos from the events, which attracted a lot of interest in print and online. Online page views: 7,233 Photo: Coronation celebrations in Kineton's Market Square - photo by Joe Makepeace
3. Lights, camera, action...in Leamington!
There's nothing like the sight of TV cameras on our streets to get the town buzzing! Part of Regent Street in Leamington was a hive of activity in August when a crew filmed a scene from the forthcoming ITVX crime drama Joan. Bringing in a lot of interest was Game of Thrones actor Sophie Turner, a former pupil of King’s High School in Warwick, who was enjoying being back on familiar territory while filming. Online page views: 16,199 Photo: Jeremy Sleath
4. The votes are in...
There was a great deal of interest in politics when the local elections took place in May. Warwick District Council followed a similar pattern to the national voting, with the ruling Conservative party losing seats and losing control of the authority. The Greens were the big winners, gaining six seats to become the biggest party with 14, while Labour also gained six overall to move up to 11 and the Liberal Democrats got one more to move up to 10. Whitnash Residents’ Association successfully defended the only three that they contested. This led to a Green-Labour administration, led by Green Party councillor Ian Davison Our live coverage of the local elections attracted 10,993 page views, with many more thousands of people reading our follow-up articles on what the results meant to you. Photo: Stock image