BarentsObserver had a significant increase in the number of readers in 2014. From January 1 to December 31 we had a total of 1,716,972 pageviews, up more than 400.000 from 2013.
Our readers come from all over the world, but half of our audience consists of people from USA, Russia and Norway. More precisely - nearly 23.7% of our readers came from the US. 15.2% came from Russia, and 13.2% from Norway. They were followed by United Kingdom, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Thomas Nilsen, editor of BarentsObserver promises that also in the coming year the web newspaper will aspire to cover all issues that affect the people living in the Arctic:
«Deepening East-West tension, falling ruble, oil price tumbles, a mining industry in crisis and raising temperatures due to climate changes; all this will for sure make headlines here in the European north in the year to come. For us, as reporters in the Barents region, focusing on the good life and peaceful cooperation, research collaboration, business opportunities will, however, always be of high priority.”
Not surprisingly, articles covering security issues in the Arctic, and especially in Northwest-Russia, drew the largest audiences last year. Here is a list over the ten most-read articles in BarentsObserver in 2014:
1. The most-read article on the BarentsObserver was the story on how American scientists managed to recover billions of dollars’ worth of “dark data” from the 1960s, pushing back the modern satellite record of sea ice extent by 17 years. This story, written by our Canadian intern James Thomson, was read 91,180 times since it was published in October. This article has been shared more than 1300 times on Facebook and 680 times on Twitter.
2. An article on how Russian fighter jets conducting drills over Karelia startled people in Eastern Finland in the end of March was the second most read article last year with 67,332 views.
3. Exchange of data under the New START treaty between Russian and the US shows that Russia has deployed some 100 new nuclear warheads in its northern waters. This article from October has been read 43,098 times.
4. The story about a fire onboard the nuclear-powered submarine “Krasnodar” at the Nerpa naval yard north of Murmansk in March was read 20,361 times.
5. During 72 hour in the end of October and beginning of November, Russia tested its entire nuclear triad in the northwestern part of the country. The account of how the country launched a Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile from Plesetsk in Arkhangelsk Oblast, a Bulava submarine-based ballistic missiles from the Barents Sea and sent Tu-95 strategic bombers out from the Kola Peninsula was read 18,037 times. The article was shared more than 1600 times on Facebook and over a thousand times on Twitter.
6. An article form 2011 on Rosatom and Russian Railways developing a nuclear train was the sixth most read article in 2014.
7. ”Putin envoy warns Finland against joining NATO” created much discussion on our comments’ page and was read more than 12,500 times.
8. The only article in Russian to reach the top-ten list in 2014 was an article from 2011 on how Russia’s regions are ranked in terms of per capita spent budget money. The oil-rich Nenets Autonomous Okrug, which is part of the Euro-Arctic Barents Region was ranked as the second richest region in Russian based on this criteria, only surpassed by Chukotka AO.
9. The intriguing story on how the wreck of the Russian cruiser “Murmansk” was sealed in a dry dock right on the coast of Finnmark, Norway for demolishing on the spot, was the ninth most-read story last year. This article was written in 2011, and BarentsObserver later published an updated story on the removal of the wreck.
10. In May 2014 Russia’s Ministry of Civil Defense, Emergencies and Elimination of Consequences of Natural Disasters issued travel restrictions to all its employees, including the country’s firefighters, ambulance drivers and rescue troopers.
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