The James Logan Courier

Courier Staff Report

The number of visitors to the James Logan Courier's school news website spiked in December, rising to about 3,000 visitors-per-day, putting the publication on a pace to attract one million readers per year.

The site drew an average of 2,999 visitors daily during December, up from 1,257 per day during November, which was a record for the "newspaper" at the time.

"If we just maintain that rate for the next twelve months, we'll have more than one million visitors," said Courier Advisor Patrick Hannigan. "Since we've had a nearly unbroken record of month-to-month readership increases since we shifted to daily publication 21 months ago, it's likely that we'll have more than a million visitors."

"It's amazing to see the Courier bloom and to be part of the experience, knowing that we can reach out to so many people," said Courier Publications Editor Bethany Stringer.

The surge in readership started Dec. 3, when readership jumped from 1,592 visits Dec. 2 to 2,702.

The number of visitors for the month peaked on Dec. 13, when 3,923 visits were logged by The Courier's traffic analysis software, Webalizer.

The number of pages downloaded from The Courier's site jumped from 4,754 in November to 11,110 in November, peaking at 19,929 on Dec. 27.

The spike in readership forced The Courier to upgrade its webhosting plan with Visionhead Technologies, which hosts The Courier's website, to accommodate the increased website traffic.

Hannigan said he doesn't know why the readership spiked since it occurred before some controversial articles were posted on The Courier mid-month.

"We'd like to think that it's because word is getting around that The Courier provides stories people want to read," he said.