Te Awamutu News has pipped its Cambridge sister publication in the website stats for March thanks to a story about the Alpha Hotel in Kihikihi.
It is a first for the newspaper – Cambridge News’ website regularly gains more hits.
The News’ editor Roy Pilott is chuffed.
It was his front-page story on March 1 which accounted for over half the page views last month and lifted numbers by 96 per cent over the same month last year.
Another Kihikihi-related story on resident Takena Stirling’s suspension as a lawyer and subsequent resignation from Waipā District Council was second in the standings with 14 per cent of the visits.
Rounding out the top five were our story on Audit NZ’s rebuke of the council, columnist Janine Krippner handing back a stone axe to iwi and Waipā councillors getting yesterday’s rubbish served up to them for morning tea.
“The figures are an indication of the growth in our product across Waipā,” said Pilott.
“We are also delivering more than 23,500 free copies of the sister papers into letter boxes every Thursday. Readers tell us they appreciate having access to a real newspaper with relevant Waipā news.”