This is a year-end summary of the site with a bit of a difference.
It is only really eleven months.
Well that’s different.
Let me explain.
Because of a server switch over thingy (no I don’t understand it either, well maybe you do) I only have stats from February 2012.
The back of the site informs me that from February to December there were 4,965,513 pages views.
I reckon that is an 11 month average of 451,410.
That is just 34,487 page views short of the five million for eleven months.
Given that then I think it is a safe bet that I got more than that the month before Hector sent his Valentine’s Day greetings to Craig Whyte.
Indeed I got more on one 24 hour period later in the year; the busiest day was April 6th when there were 47,041 page views.
Moreover January was a month when this site had 24 posts.
This month, by way of comparison, has had 286,821 views and only 15 posts.
So I think I’m on safe ground claiming the five million figure.
The lowest was July with 279,930 and that was despite telling you all that I would be away on Downfall writing leave and would not be posting.
As it turned out I posted eleven times in July as various stories were breaking around the Rangers omnishambles.
The busiest month was May with 657,431 page views.
New Media colleagues in the NUJ tell me that this site breaks the mould for personal blogs and then some.
They tell me that, quite simply, it should not be getting this level of traffic.
One of the reasons the webmasters tell me is that it has no multi-media bells and whistles.
It is just text.
I try and break stories of public interest on a regular basis and provide commentary and analysis.
Despite the focus on Planet Fitba that isn’t the whole story of this site.
You can use the search function and you will find coverage on subjects as diverse as the existential crisis in Ulster Loyalism, Ireland’s economic plight, the growth of Islamic fundamentalism out the “Arab Spring”, the gun control debate in the USA and James Bond at fifty!
Despite the digital platform what appears here it is mostly good old fashioned journalism of the type that is rapidly disappearing in the sports desks of Scotland.
No rocket science involved, just the constant cultivating of sources and repeated attempts to corroborate tip offs.
The mixture of scoops and analysis seems to work for many of you.
When much of the Rangers coverage on this site was re-produced in “Downfall” thousands of you bought the book.
I am reliably informed that it was easily the bestselling football book in Scotland in 2012 by quite a distance.
However, you wouldn’t know that from the mainstream media, which is probably not unconnected to the book’s undoubted success in the shops.
Just like the site “Downfall” broke the mould as the pre-publicity was carried out by stalwart chaps on social media who detested a work that had not, at that point, emerged from the printing plant.
They saved the publisher a fortune in advertising and spread the word about the book among likely buyers.
Chapeau.
The success of “Downfall” and the popularity of this site points, I believe, to a cultural change among the consumers of Scottish sports journalism.
Quite simply the good folk of Planet Fitba no longer trust the churnalized mainstream media and that is a healthy development from 2012 in my opinion.
In January I was on their case about the sloppiness that was being passed off as journalism on matters Rangers and I think the succeeding twelve months was shown that to be a correct call.
A crucial part of this site is the feedback from you the reader. Moreover, I am particularly heartened to see people interacting with each other and I’m happy to moderate comments that abide by the basic rules of decency and legality.
In the digital age content is king and it would appear that many of you like what appears here.
Thank you.
