READERS are enjoying the Bendigo Advertiser's revolutionary News Now initiative in historic numbers.
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The new Bendigo Advertiser website attracted 1,976,737 page views in September - the most in a single month in our history.
September's page view figure represented a 56.83 per cent rise on the 1,260,405 hits in August.
More than 149,000 unique browsers ventured to the site in September.
We were confident this reverse publishing method of news delivery would benefit the community and the success is clearly displayed in record figures.
We can talk about News Now until the cows come home, but in the end it's figures that determine success - we are happy to state the figure - 1,976,737 page views - not just say how well things are going.
News Now attracted more page views in a single month than ever before - people have given this the tick of approval.
But what's also great is the printed edition is more than holding its own.
When you have a loyal reader such as Eaglehawk's Margaret Brown travel in Friday and pay for three weeks of Bendigo Advertisers because she doesn't want to break her run of 63 years reading the paper every day - that's a great tribute.
News Now statistics show people are spending more time on the Bendigo Advertiser website. The number of stories viewed during a visit to the website jumped 47.2 per cent from August to September, while the average visit duration rose 10 per cent.
We planned to double the amount of copy delivered to our website with News Now. We've actually tripled the amount in that first month.
Stories are appearing seven days a week and the feedback is people really enjoy that aspect of News Now.
We are also getting far more interaction with readers through the News Now method and that's been a great bonus.
The Bendigo Advertiser staff have worked hard to make News Now a success in the face of enormous change.
This is a pilot - no one has ever done this before in Fairfax Media, so there have been challenges. But the staff have stuck at this and we are very proud of them.
News Now can only get better.