Web Stats for Hometown Newsmaker is here!

When readMedia launched Hometown Newsmaker a few years ago, it made it easy for colleges and universities to do "mass-customization" of stories about student success. News is much more meaningful when it's about people the audience knows, which is why hometown news is a powerful way for colleges to generate positive stories about their institution and what students are achieving. Community newspapers love getting and publishing hometown news.

When we introduced social media integration to Hometown Newsmaker, we found that these kinds of stories resonate online, too. Proud parents and students are happy to share their personalized stories of their accolades on Facebook and Twitter.

Now, we've launched our biggest enhancement to date for Hometown Newsmaker: Web Stats. This feature will allow our clients to demonstrate the success of their hometown news programs. From showcasing the geographic reach of where news is distributed to discovering how often individual stories are shared on social networks like Facebook, Web Stats makes it easy to see how effective sending lots of hometown news can be.

Videos: The details on Web Stats

This video explains the Web Stats home dashboard and the media distribution heat map:

In this video, learn about how Web Stats shows you where people are finding your stories online and how often they're sharing them with their social networks:

Finally, we've also enhanced the Delivery Report for each hometowner that you send. Watch this video to see how you can track the success of each group hometowner sent:

You can also read our special brief about Web Stats and Hometown Newsmaker here. 

We've seen colleges be incredibly creative with the types of hometown news stories they send: everything from performing arts to student research presentations to athletics to study abroad and internship participation. Now, Web Stats will allow these institutions to track their success and showcase just how impactful sending personalized stories can be at reaching traditional and social media.

Top 10 Press Releases of 2010

Thousands of interesting stories crossed our wire over the past year. From state government announcements to lottery winners to research on America's greatest presidents, here are the 10 news releases from our clients that got the most web traffic in 2010:

1. NYS parks closing announcement

In February, Governor David Paterson and state parks commissioner Carol Ash announced the proposed closure of several state parks due to economic and budgetary concerns.

2. Watertown corrections officer arrested for fraud

Just last week, the NYS Insurance Department found that a corrections officer had fraudulently collected over $6,000 in worker's compensation.

3. St. Lawrence County man wins $10,000,000 lottery prize

How's this for an early Christmas? The NYS Lottery issued a media advisory about its check-presentation ceremony to a Norfolk man who won a $10,000-a-week for life lottery prize.

4. Price Chopper grocery chain expands via acquisition

In March, Price Chopper announced the purchase of six P&C grocery stores, which expands the chain's footprint to northern New York and also New Hampshire. (This release was also the most popular March story on our wire).

5. Federal law combats internet cigarette tax evasion

The American Lung Association in New York issued this release in April explaining the implications of the PACT Act, passed by Congress and signed by President Obama and requiring that all online tobacco sales be subject to federal, state and local taxes.

6. Governor announces passage of early retirement incentive law

As budget woes continued in NYS, Governor Paterson issued a release in May outlining new legislation that would offer incentives to state workers who took early retirement, in an effort to achieve cost savings.

7. Proposed state worker furloughs announced 

The May budget crisis caused Governor Paterson to announce plans for mandatory state worker furloughs as part of emergency appropriations bills.  

8. Unemployment rate in NYS drops and effects benefits

In July, the NYS Department of Labor announced that state unemployment had dipped below the 8.5% three-month average, and thus triggered the elimination of some extended unemployment benefits. 

9. Siena Research Institute rates best and worst US Presidents

In a survey of over 200 presidential research experts, Siena Research Institute found that the four presidents etched onto Mount Rushmore, plus Franklin D. Roosevelt, were deemed as America's Greatest Presidents.

10. NYS Governor cautions residents about heatwave

July was a hot month, and the governor reminded New York residents to take precautions against the heat, as well as monitor electricity usage to prevent power outages.

News, and not noise

What do all of these releases have in common? They all deliver solid, locally relevant news. You won't find a lot of press release gobbledygook like "Company X is pleased to announce the launch of our revolutionary, world-class widget that is uniquely positioned to deliver flexible, next generation performance" on the readMedia wire. Our clients originate the types of news stories you'd see in your local paper or on a TV newscast -- stories about local residents and local government. We take a lot of pride in knowing that the stories we deliver to newsrooms for our clients are relevant and interesting. On to 2011!

Image credit: Flickr user sam_churchill