In 2013, Prince George Citizen readers named Shirley Bond as the newsmaker of the year but online, the top read story on the Citizen website was about Nicole McPherson, a pregnant 37-year-old woman who died suddenly while staying at Ronald McDonald House.
A similar thing has happened again this year. While Citizen readers picked Cst. Aaron Kehler, the rookie police officer who pulled over Cody Legebokoff on a snowy November night between Vanderhoof and Fort St. James, online readers voted with their feet that the 2014 newsmaker of the year was 12-year-old Matt Marotta, the subject of four of the most popular online stories of the year.
He was the only player on his Prince George hockey team to stay on the ice and shake hands with the opposing team after a tournament loss on a controversial goal. The original story, "Peewee player stands alone," was fourth overall, "Peewee coach admits mistake was made" was second, a letter to the editor entitled "Hockey player shows courage" was 15th and an opinion column by Jason Peters, "Peewee player shows adults how to behave," was 22nd.
The pride in Marotta's decision was matched with grief and heartbreak for Shea Fell. "Touch too much," a March 14 story about this local baby, born with an excruciating condition that caused him to break out in painful blisters at the slightest skin contact was the 23rd most read story, eclipsed by "Love for Shea," the July 17th story that broke the news about his death from complications of his condition. That story finished ninth overall.
Three Cody Legebokoff stories finished in the top 25 but the highest-ranked story at number 12 was a collection of trial material available online only. "Exhibit Cody" was put on our website after the trial and features crime scene photographs, audio from his arrest and video taken from his interview with police investigators. "Legebokoff pleads not guilty to murders" on the first day of the trial was 19th and "Woman testifies she had relationship with Legebokoff" was 21st.
Online readers were interested in other tragedies last year, too. Like last year, tragedy was the central theme behind many of the top stories.
"Local wildfires around Prince George," published July 18, topped the most-read stories list, "Two pedestrians killed near CNC," published Oct. 9, was third, "Hunting accident injures top athlete" was fifth and two stories about the death of a pair of teens at Gravel Pit Lake in May were sixth and seventh.
The interest in tragic news wasn't always local, either. Citizen readers made "Missing plane crashed into Indian Ocean, said Malaysian PM" the eighth most-read story in 2014 on our website.
There was good news, too, that attracted online readership in 2014.
"Cougars sold to investors, sources say," a Citizen exclusive by sports reporter Ted Clarke published on March 3, three weeks before the team would officially confirm the sale, was the 10th most-read story and a followup story, "Hamhuis confirms part in Cougars purchase," written by Brad Ziemer of the Vancouver Sun and published March 24, was 16th.
Perhaps most interesting were the stories and issues that didn't appear in the top 20 of 2014:
- Fluoride - a few die-hards are still debating this issue on our website but it appears they are the only ones who really care.
- Politics - No stories about the municipal election, the labour dispute with the city's unionized workers, Shari Green's announcement that she wouldn't seek re-election after one term as mayor and the nomination battle for the federal Conservatives for the riding of Cariboo-Prince George made the list. No provincial politics, either.
- Energy - In a year where the federal government gave tentative approval to construction of the Northern Gateway pipeline and the provincial government gave the thumbs up to building the Site C dam, it appears online readers don't care much about this kind of news. To put this in context, a Northern Gateway story finished as the 10th most-read story in 2013.
- Striking teachers - There were plenty of stories but only a letter to the editor published Aug. 8, under the headline "This is who I am, this is why I strike" by local teacher Melissa Dillman, an editorial, "Hard lesson," published Aug. 26 made the list at 14 and 24, respectively.
