A regional daily recorded its highest ever levels of traffic for a single day after its coverage of the tidal surges attracted 143,000 people in just 24 hours.
The Eastern Daily Press attracted the record amount of unique visitors who were following the newspaper’s 24-hour coverage of the storms which battered the East Anglian coast yesterday.
The drama started on Thursday when 999 sources gave the EDP an early heads-up on the emerging storm and a powerful, graphic-led, front page and online coverage was the starter for what was to come.
Editorial staff on the Archant Norfolk titles worked around the clock with 17 reporters from King’s Lynn to Lowestoft mobilised, while six photographers spent the night taking pictures and shooting video.
EDP staff worked around the clock as storms hit East Anglia
Editor-in-chief of Archant Norfolk Nigel Pickover said that as the crisis emerged during Thursday, 204,000 unique visitors visited over 900,000 pages of Archant Norfolk websites.
“As our web visits rocketed we managed to produce 12 incredible print pages, including a “vertical wraparound” showing the scale of the devastation across Norfolk and Suffolk,” he said.
It proved a triple success for the title as TV editor Rob Setchell organised a slot on Mustard TV which played through EDP24.
Friday's front page shows the full extent of the storms
At the height of the drama Nigel visited the stricken town of Great Yarmouth and reported from the scene as well as taking pictures.
“This was an incredible day and a triumph for our journalism across all our platforms. We told great stories in print, online and on TV – and our audiences loved it,” added Nigel.
“We’re very proud of the all-round team effort which led to record-breaking figures and a rush for our papers at newsagents this morning.
“Early reports indicate high sales as many national titles didn’t make it to the flood zones.
“Our huge Norfolk and Suffolk patch – and the fact we retain a strong branch office presence in all key towns meant we were on the spot, when the action happened. I commend the efforts of my team, a stunning effort across one of the largest patches anywhere in the UK.”
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I’m more shocked to find out that the EDP has SIX photographers…
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Not for too much longer if the beancounters have their way. Surely UGC is the way forward!
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Nice to see the death of Nelson Mandela made it onto page 21.
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Commendable local coverage….but …”It proved a triple success for the title as TV editor Rob Setchell organised a slot on Mustard TV which played through EDP24.” ????
That will be the same Mustard TV which has a handful of views on YouTube for its prodigious output.
Another very dubious foray into TV by a newspaper publisher, in this case Archant. They’ll argue YouTube isn’t their main platform for delivery – but as a measure of interest it’s quite startling. From dozens of Mustard TV news videos uploaded to YouTube just four have more than 100 views.
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@ends – who knows whether local TV will work out but using YouTube views as evidence is about as useful as stating how many copies of the paper are sold by bakers.
Mustard has its own website at mustardtv.co.uk with hundreds of clips, has videos embedded on the EDP and other Archant websites and will be on Freeview next year.
It’s not trying to compete with burping cats on YouTube.
@Biter – I would have given the front page puff more prominence but it was a full page obit inside. Given the biggest storms in 60 years with real risk to life, what’s wrong with a regional paper giving precedence to a cracking local story ahead of an international one that only had one salient fact?
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