A story about the new Matadero Trail was the most popular article in Stanford Report from January to July 2011.
Nearly two years after converting to an electronic email format, Stanford Report appears to have become a daily routine for many faculty and staff. That’s among the conclusions of a recently completed report of open rates and click-throughs from January to July 2010 and 2011 for Stanford’s daily news source, produced by University Communications.
Among the findings:
- The overall average daily open rate has increased 16.5 percent to 6,489. (Tracking figures follow only those readers who open Stanford Report with images—a number believed to be smaller than the actual opens.)
- Daily readership varies very little from month to month, despite fluctuations in the academic calendar. Average daily open rates were the highest in May, which saw an 18.4 percent increase from 2010 to 6,602, and lowest in July, which saw a 12.3 percent increase to 6,239.
- June had the largest average daily open rate jump, with 18.7 percent compared to 2010.
- The most popular Stanford Report was on Wednesday, May 25, when articles were featured about Frost Amphitheater (a Stanford alumni magazine story), creation of a $20 million endowment for bioengineering projects (a School of Medicine story) and the provost’s planned presentation of the 2012 budget to the Faculty Senate.
- Tuesday’s edition is generally the most popular Stanford Report of the week, followed by the Monday email. In fact, five of the 10 most popular Stanford Reports were published on Tuesdays.
- The most popular article from January to July appeared on Friday, May 20, and was about the opening of Stanford’s new Matadero Trail. The second most popular article appeared on Wednesday, Feb. 16, and was about campus commuters being encouraged to tweak their p.m. driving habits.
- The most popular Dish item appeared on Jan. 7 and was about quarterback Andrew Luck’s decision to forgo the NFL draft. The second most popular was on April 21 and was about President Obama’s helicopter landing on Sand Hill Road.
- When it comes to ads, the results show faculty and staff readers like food. Advertisements for the $5.95, all-you-care-to-eat faculty/staff meal plan were the most popular, followed by ads for The Market, Russo Café, the Axe and Palm and other eateries overseen by Stanford Dining.
