See the top 10 stories in the Hub’s first year

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 2 April 2014 at 12:00 am

Provided photo – An article that was first published on Orleans Hub about Ed and Floreen Hale became a world-wide phenomenon.

Orleans Hub has published nearly 3,000 news and sports articles since we went live last April 2. Many of the stories were widely shared through Facebook and Twitter.

Crime stories, breaking news and tragedies tend to be the most popular for single-story “clicks.” That happens with most news sites.

But some of our most popular stories were uplifting and positive. Our top story for the year featured the 60-year marriage of Ed and Floreen Hale and their death a day apart in a Batavia hospital in February.

“A love story to the very end” was published on Feb. 16 and had 11,008 clicks before we had to send it to a different page off our server. The story was shared around the world and was so popular it crashed our server.

Provided photo – An article about the inspiring life of Albion band teacher Wayne Burlison has been shared by hundreds of people through Facebook and Twitter.

The article last Thursday on the life of Wayne Burlison, a 36-year-old music teacher, quickly emerged as our second most popular story. Burlison left a big imprint on the community as a teacher, runner, musician and member of the Albion Free Methodist Church.

“Albion schools mourn loss of beloved ‘Mr. B’” had 6,968 page views. (These numbers don’t include people who read the articles on the main web site without clicking on the link to the single-page story.)

Here are the other news articles with the most page views:

3. “3 in Medina arrested after drug bust,” published on Feb. 13 (3,828).

4. “3 teens charged after numerous burglaries in eastern Orleans,” published on March 6 (3,120).

5. “Firefighters extricate driver in a daring rescue in Murray,” published on Dec. 13 (2,959).

6. “Paul Lauricella, 24, killed in Lyndonville accident,” published on Jan. 15 (2,689).

7. “DA: 4 burglars can expect lengthy state prison sentences,” published on Dec. 6 (2,420).

8. “Day-old baby left with Medina FD,” published on May 28 (2,220).

9. “Medina woman, 28, dies in Carlton crash,” published on Sept. 14 (2,126).

10. “State Police helicopter swirled above Albion last night,” published Sept. 4 (2,104).