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The Rochester Beacon’s sixth full calendar year, which wraps up tomorrow, has been another year of growth on our true bottom line: readership. Since Jan. 1, has RochesterBeacon.com logged more than 303,000 users—up nearly 16 percent compared with the year before. Pageviews increased nearly 15 percent.
Analytics tools allow us to identify which articles draw the most website traffic and clicks on our Weekly Review email. And as in years past, the most-read stories of 2024 were quite varied, highlighting our readers’ diverse interests.
On the Beacon’s website, the most-read story was “The code that divides Fairport,” Contributing Writer Mike Costanza’s examination of the intense debate sparked by the village’s plan to update zoning regulations with a broader range of housing options. The No. 2 story was “The road ahead for Doorley” by Senior Writer Will Astor, written as Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley faced multiple investigations into her conduct during a traffic-stop incident. Third place went to “In donations, Harris vs. Trump is no contest,” a piece by Contributing Writer Jacob Schermerhorn on financial contributions to the presidential candidates by Rochester-area donors.
We also closely track clicks on articles in the Beacon’s Weekly Review email. This metric gives us the clearest picture of interest among the Beacon’s readership base—unlike website pageviews, which can be impact by social media and news aggregator websites and apps. (If you are not already receiving the free Weekly Review, you can sign up here.) The most-read email story this year was Will Astor’s “The plight of private practice doctors,” about the financial bind faced by these doctors as costs rise and insurance payments fail to keep pace. Like on the website, Will’s “The road ahead for Doorley” ranked second among email stories. No. 3 was “Blue island in a sea of red,” the story I wrote on the Beacon’s reader survey conducted after Monroe County bucked the tide that swept Donald Trump to a second term in the White House.
Throughout the Beacon’s six-year history, we have welcomed articles from community contributors. The most-read contributed article on RochesterBeacon.com this year was “Rochester is welcoming immigrant families—and growing our economy,” by Bob Duffy, CEO of Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce. In this piece, he noted that “New York has welcomed immigrants for centuries. That can’t change when times are tough.”
We don’t chase pageviews—clickbait has never been part of our model. But we do value readership data because it is the best way to know which stories have drawn the most interest. At the same time, stories can be meaningful in other ways too. So, once again we’ve asked our principal writers to select the “best” piece they contributed to the Beacon over the last 12 months. We don’t define “best”; it might be work that successfully tackled an important or knotty subject, or maybe it just meant the most to the writer.
Will Astor picked “The plight of private practice doctors,” the year’s top-ranking email story. “I was struck by the really strong response to the story from doctors,” he notes. “And while the story dealt specifically with their interactions with Excellus, it reflected broader frustrations with the insurance industry felt by many Americans, as the reaction to the recent murder of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO has underscored.”
Publisher Alex Zapesochny chose “The Beacon’s Peter Lovenheim on the power of gratitude.” He selected this piece, marking the publication of Peter’s latest book, “Gift Shop of Gratitude: A Journal to Explore the Journey of Your Life,” because “with each passing year, it becomes more clear to me that cultivating a sense of gratitude is critical to truly enjoying life, and as an antidote to worrying about the kinds of things that often drive the daily news cycle. Plus, it was a special treat to write a story about one of our Rochester Beacon colleagues.”
As for Peter, our Washington correspondent, the 2024 story he was “most happy with, and most enjoyed writing,” is “Seeing Rochester signs through Chuck Bigelow’s eyes,” a profile that describes the driving tour of the city he did with Bigelow, an award-winning digital type designer. “Now, whether I’m downtown, at the Amtrak Station, the Pittsford Wegmans, the airport, or just in my own neighborhood, I can no longer look at public signage without thinking of Chuck and all the fascinating things I learned from him about fonts, their history, and their meaning.”
Contributing Writer Jacob Schermerhorn chose “Upheaval in the city schools,” a story related to two developments: the sudden departure of Superintendent Carmine Peluso, and the decision to dissolve the Educational Partnership Organization at East Lower and Upper schools. “I am proud of the quick turnaround of the story as well as the depth of reporting,” Jacob notes. “I think it was both a timely and detailed piece of writing. I think it also demonstrates what the Beacon is best at: following storylines and topics throughout the year, even when they are not particularly newsworthy, so that when things do happen, we have the expertise to write about them confidently.”
While Mike Costanza’s story on the Fairport zoning debate was the most-read story on our website, he selected another one: “The closing of a 156-year-old college,” his piece on the closing of venerable Wells College. Here’s why: “The article portrayed the thorny financial problems that confronted the private liberal arts college, the vain attempts of its administration and alumni to keep the institution open, and the potential financial effects of its loss for the nearby village of Aurora. It was a complicated story, but I think I portrayed the issues fairly clearly while respecting the pain of those I interviewed as they watched the college prepare to close its doors.”
Opinion Editor Kent Gardner picked “It’s time for automated traffic enforcement.” He explains: “Driving in Rochester can feel like being an extra in a Mad Max film. Cars pass to your right, the better to roar through a solid red light. Groups of unlicensed motorbikes zoom across intersections, seeming to pay no attention to other vehicles or, worse, pedestrians. I looked into the matter. Reconnect Rochester documents the increase in injuries and fatalities connected to our streets—the increase in street peril wasn’t my imagination. Better enforcement could be part of a solution, so I reviewed the history of those red light cameras we used to have. And this is what I learned.” (Coming in the new year: a Rochester Beacon event on this topic. Join us as we gather experts to talk about ways to reduce death and injury on our streets: Feb. 12, Rochester Central Library, 9 a.m.)
For Managing Editor Smriti Jacob, her piece titled “Women at work: the state of gender equity,” stood out for several reasons: “The women leaders I contacted for that article were gracious and committed to answering my questions. They shared personal stories of triumph and challenge. Those personal stories shaped that article and reminded me of the power of community.” The highlight of her year, however, was bringing to fruition the Oasis Project, the Beacon’s internship program. “We were able to work with three students who were interested in journalism, and our donors gave generously to support the project. One student, Narm Nathan, continues contributing to our work despite a hectic schedule as a college senior.”
Narm selected a piece he wrote in August: “The Good Cause question.” “Writing on the prospect of Good Cause eviction protections,” he says, “represented the culmination of what I learned during my internship with the Beacon: combining on-the-ground reporting with data analysis and interpretation on policy that stood to affect the most vulnerable members of our community.”
Contributing Writer Justin Murphy chose “A fearless voice for the community,” his story on Gloria Winston Al-Sarag, who passed away in November. Notes Justin: “I love doing news obituaries for the breadth of perspective one gets on the community. Gloria was truly a one-of-a-kind personality, but not necessarily someone who was widely known outside her own circle (and readership). Plus, after 15 years working at daily newspapers, I’m just glad still to be doing journalism.”
Justin was an important source for my own pick, “After the strike, the D&C’s dilemma remains,” a story I wrote on the struggles of the Democrat and Chronicle and its parent, Gannett, to achieve a digital transformation. And I am very glad that Justin, a veteran D&C reporter, is now a Beacon contributing writer.
On behalf of all of us as this year comes to a close, I want to say thanks again for reading the Beacon in 2024. We are already working on stories for the new year—and as always, we are eager to hear your ideas too.
Paul Ericson is Rochester Beacon executive editor. The Beacon welcomes comments and letters from readers who adhere to our comment policy including use of their full, real name. See “Leave a Reply” below to discuss on this post. Comments of a general nature may be submitted to the Letters page by emailing [email protected].
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Congratulations on another year of excellent articles. One suggestion however. Communication should be encouraged and should be more two-way and more robust. Perhaps a process could be established whereby contributors wishing to do so would respond to questions or comments filed by readers. Also, the current posting system allows a comment, and just two responses to the comment. This should be expanded to allow and encourage more indepth discussion.
Thanks for your comment, Len, and for suggesting more interaction between our writers and readers. We place no restrictions on Beacon writers; it’s their choice whether to respond to comments posted by readers. Also, there is no limit on the number of comments or responses regarding a particular article. Our Comment Policy requires only that commenters use their full, real names and that they adhere to our word limits for each writer per article: 400 words for the initial comment, 100 words for follow-up comments. Thanks again for your suggestion, and for reading the Beacon.
Over the years I recall only one instance in which a Beacon writer responded to a comment posted about their article. So while there may be no restrictions on such responses, there is also clearly no attempt to persuade writers to do so. This is unfortunate as those of us posting comments are for all intents and purposes, talking to a stone wall.
Also, you misunderstood my comment that, “the current posting system allows a comment, and just two responses to the comment.” I was referring to the fact that when a commenter such as myself posts a comment in response to an article, your system allows only two sub-responses to that comment, thus truncating any dialogue between your readers. For example, now that two sub-responses have been posted to my original comment above, there will be no way for you to respond further without starting a new comment chain.
Thanks again for your thoughts, Len. Some Beacon writers are more inclined than others to respond to reader comments — I can think of one who has engaged with readers dozens of times. I think some see the Comments section as a place where readers can have their say, and interact with one other, which often occurs. We will make sure all are aware of your suggestion.
As for the commenting features, we plan to tackle our first redesign of the website this year and will be looking at ways to make the this feature as robust and flexible as possible.