July numbers for latimes.com: ‘Strong month for breaking news of all stripes’

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Meredith Artley, Managing Editor, Online, gives the latest figures in this memo to staff:

Colleagues: Latimes.com drew 142 million page views in July – up 10% over this time last year. And we had more than 23 million unique users, an increase of 27% from last year. Visits from local readers continue to grow at a solid pace of 30% year over year.

Some incredible work this month, including the launch of an ongoing video Q&A with Harriet Ryan and Andrew Blankstein on the evolving story of Michael Jackson’s death. Also, look at this slick, in-depth, interactive timeline on Jackson’s life.

In addition to the Metro team’s insightful coverage of the tragic and untimely death of young Lily Burk, there is this timeline tracing the criminal history of Charles Samuel through court and prison documents.

Check out the creative, expertly edited audio slide show from Mel Melcon about the closing of a Hollywood prop house. Perfect way to tell this story, and what a character.

And there’s also a strong package looking back at the 1984 Olympics.

July was a strong month for breaking news of all stripes – we were spot-on and quick with e-mail alerts and Tweets on Sotomayor’s confirmation hearings, the state budget debacle coverage, econ news, the obits for Corazon Aquino, Merce Cunningham and Walter Cronkite – these alerts were followed quickly by unique, authoritative staff stories, most with stunning images.

What’s next? Redesign redesign redesign. Coming to America’s fastest-growing top newspaper site next week, if all final testing continues to go smoothly, as expected. That’s right – out of the top five newspaper sites, we are hands down the fastest growing in terms of both unique users and page views.

Top blogs for July:
Another great month for blogs – total page views were 18.5 million, just shy of last month’s record. Tony Pierce has reached his dream of having five blogs with 1 million page views in a month. So we’ll just have to raise the bar now and go for 10 blogs…

1. L.A. Now -- 3,969,640 page views
2. Dish Rag -- 2,443,817
3. Hero Complex -- 1,221,290
4. Top of the Ticket -- 1,201,914
5. Lakers -- 1,051,629
6. Pop & Hiss
7. Show Tracker
8. Travel - Daily Deal
9. Gold Derby
10. Booster Shots
11. Fabulous Forum
12. Dodger Thoughts
13. Technology
14. Company Town
15. Culture Monster
16. All the Rage
17. L.A. Unleashed
18. Big Picture
19. Jacket Copy
20. Up to Speed

Most-viewed articles:
1. LAX parking lot is home away from home for airline workers (By Dan Weikel)
2. Republican pundits open fire on Sarah Palin (By Mark Z. Barabak)
3. Jani at the mercy of her mind (By Shari Roan)
4. Collision of 2 L.A. worlds may have led to girl’s death (By Richard Winton, Ari B. Bloomekatz and Joel Rubin)
5. Opposition to state budget deal mounts (By Michael Rothfeld and Patrick McGreevy)
6. More bodies go unclaimed as families can’t afford funeral costs (By Molly Hennessy-Fiske)
7. State IOUs loom as foes’ battle lines harden (By Michael Rothfeld and Shane Goldmacher)
8. Girl, 17, found slain in car near downtown L.A. (By Margot Roosevelt and Ruben Vives)
9. Fox 11’s Jillian Reynolds untouched as layoffs lay waste to the TV station’s staff (By James Rainey)
10. Michael Jackson’s children come out of the shadows (By Chris Lee)

Most-viewed photo galleries:
1. Megan Fox’s worst pictures
2. Remembering Michael Jackson
3. Michael Jackson | 1958-2009
4. Scene at Comic-Con International 2009
5. Bizarre and unusual destinations around the world
6. Fans mourn Michael Jackson
7. Mischa Barton’s mysterious meltdown
8. Behind the gates at Neverland
9. The Image Photo Booth: Comic-Con 2009
10. In Europe, 63 destinations off the beaten path

Social media highlights:

- Stats: We have more than 300,000 followers across 170+ twitter accounts. We now have more @latimes Twitter ‘followers’ than breaking email news alert subscribers.

- The majority of the newsroom is active on at least one social network (eg, Facebook, LinkedIn) or social media site (eg, Twitter and social news sites like Digg). If you haven’t joined the party yet, talk to Andrew Nystrom.

- After search engines, social sites are #2 type of traffic referrer to LAT.com.

That’s it. Back to the redesign.

Meredith Artley
Managing Editor, Online

http://www.latimes.com/mjvideo

http://www.latimes.com/mjtimeline

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-ho-props-ss,0,4821994.htmlstory
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-charlessamuel-timeline,0,7810737.htmlstory