Record numbers of readers check out Shropshirestar.com
It's been a record-breaking year for the Shropshire Star's website, as more people than ever before logged on for their news in 2013, smashing the record books.
Shropshire Star readers logged on in their millions to read, browse and watch the latest news, as well as having their say on the biggest stories each and every day.
The number of visits to Shropshire Star.com broke through the 10 million barrier for the first time in 2013, up 31 per cent on 2012.
The number of unique visitors was also up, this time by almost nine per cent, and the number of stories read also increased, this time by 21 per cent to over a record 33 million page views.
Sadly the year's news was dominated by the disappearance and murder of Wellington teenager Georgia Williams, followed by the arrest, trial and sentencing of her killer Jamie Reynolds.
But there was some light among the darkness as we also reported on the many tributes to Georgia as well as the hugely successful fundraising efforts of the Georgia Williams Trust, set up to celebrate her legacy.
One of the most read stories of the year was about Buster the dog, who came to the rescue of three-year-old Charlie Blake at his Telford home after the youngster got trapped in a cord for window blinds.
Buster, a two-year-old American bulldog, saw Charlie struggling and the strings wrapped around his neck, and started barking outside Charlie's mother Natalie's bedroom door.
Readers responded to the story in their thousands. Other stories that engaged readers included the row that developed over plans for a Muslim prayer centre in Shrewsbury, CCTV footage from Wellington indoor market which appeared to show a ghostly figure and a farmer near Whitchurch who called in metal detectorists when he lost his keys in a field. . . and unearthed 14 mediaeval coins.
One fascinating sign of changing culture online has been how our visitors came to us in 2013.
During 2012, almost 76 per cent of all our online traffic came from desktop computers, with mobile devices only accounting for 24 per cent.
But 2013 saw a huge explosion in people reading their news on mobile devices. Desktop traffic accounted for almost 57 per cent, while mobile traffic made up 43 per cent, or 4,440,874 page views.
