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TV comic helps regional daily break web record

A TV comedian and film star helped a regional daily break an online story views record.

The Lancashire Telegraph broke its record for the number of visits to an individual page on its website after Ricky Gervais posted a link to the story from his official Facebook and Twitter pages.

The article, by journalists Chris Gee and Daria Neklesa, concerned the arrest of a man seen punching a dog in the Lancashire town of Nelson on a video which went viral online.

Gervais, co-creator of series including The Office and Extras, shared the article with his followers on the two social networking sites on Wednesday, along with a follow up reporting the dog was “doing well” after the attack.

The post which was shared by Ricky Gervais

The post which was shared by Ricky Gervais

The original piece reached 2.4 million users on Facebook after being widely shared following the publicity from Gervais.

The story on the Telegraph’s website linked from Facebook was viewed by more than 125,000 readers.

LT Digital Editor Ryan Wood said: “This terrible story just emphasises the power of social media. Our original Facebook post was shared thousands of times and, with Ricky’s contribution, the article went viral.

“Thankfully the little dog is now in police care and is doing well.”

The newspaper’s previous record came in February 2014 when 118,000 people viewed a court report about a 13-year-old boy who admitted raping his eight-year-old sister after watching porn on a friend’s Xbox.

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  • December 22, 2015 at 9:54 am
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    When I see the words TV Comic together I instantly think of Mighty Moth, TV Terrors and Catweazle.
    Showing my age there.

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