THE Zululand Observer is not only the Caxton Media Group’s Newspaper of the Year – an award it won in March this year – but the ZO’s website is now also officially the group’s top community online newspaper in South Africa.
For the month of August, the Zululand Observer website had 423 233 page views, and contributed 808 270 hits to Caxton’s overall monthly figures.
This impressive number of page views smashed all previous records.
Caxton owns more than 130 local newspapers with more than 72 title websites.
In total, all of Caxton’s websites enjoyed 13.6 million page views during August – 6.45 million which were unique page views (readers who haven’t visited the respective websites before).
Compared to the previous month (July), 1.2 million more people accessed the Caxton network.
August was a strong news month for the Zululand Observer.
Our top performing (most read) articles were:1. Body of missing University of Zululand student found in shack (18 251 page views); 2. WATCH: Video released of school violence in Richards Bay (14 962 page views); 3. Richards Bay man (54) survives attack after being knocked out by blowpipe dart (14 190 page views); 4. WATCH: Mayhem as John Ross Parkway caves in (9 192 page views); 5. WATCH: Schoolgirl beaten up by boy (6 704).
These figures prove that hyper-local news is still king.
Despite having access to millions of other news sources, online readers still prefer to click on their local newspaper’s website for relevant, current and trustworthy content.
National and international news sites could never bring the same quality hyper-local content to the users of a specific geographic area – and that is what gives Caxton, and the Zululand Observer, the competitive edge.
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Consistency
‘We are incredibly proud of our news and online team,’ says Managing Editor Ronelle Ramsamy.
‘What is particularly noteworthy is that it was not a single story, but a consistency of newsworthy articles throughout the month of August.
‘The ZO is a reputable multi-media brand and advertisers choosing both our print and online packages can be reassured of increased traffic, not only to our printed editions, but online platform as well.’
More and more online users are flocking to local newspaper sites.
Effective Measure’s July statistics rank Caxton Digital as the fourth-largest South African digital publisher.
Newspaper publications are no longer merely a printed product which you can recycle for other uses.
We now not only bring readers the latest news directly to their smart devices, but also provide access to quality local-hyper content.
Our social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) give the community the opportunity of receiving and sharing information about what is happening and when it happens in their own areas.
Our digital software further enables the ZO to gauge what our readers want to consume and what not.
This is great news for our advertisers too.
Our digital specialists are able to perfectly match advertisers with their target audiences.
Would you like to make this work for you?
Contact the Zululand Observer at online@zob.co.za to find out more.
Check out how this multi-media industry works #proudlyzo
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