By Monty Siekerman
During the past year, the Ada Icon saw a significant increase in the number of stories viewed, more than a quarter of a million—272,327 to be exact. That’s an increase of 23 percent in the past year.
Truly, the Ada Icon lives up to its motto, “Where Ada gets its news.”
And, the Icon tries hard to meet the local news appetite. We posted more than 2,500 stories in 2017. Some weeks saw 70 or more local stories made available to readers. That's a lot of news, week after week, from a village that is only 2 square miles in size.
Plus, the Ada Icon posted more than 1,000 local photos, mostly of people doing good things in the community, but there were drugs, fires, and accidents to report, as well.
Some interesting facts follow: what stories were most read, where do the readers live. Read on, dear reader.
After finding success with establishing the Bluffton Icon, Fred and Mary Steiner began the Ada Icon in March of 2012. Both Icons are totally free to the public since they are fully supported by advertising.
"The Ada Icon has 60 local advertisers,” said Steiner. “This is very exciting because our advertisers are all local small business owners. From the very beginning we wanted to create a community website with local news supported by very affordable local advertising. The two go hand-in-hand."
He added that the Icon continually develops ways to promote its advertisers. This is accomplished several ways, including Facebook promotion and posting stories about our advertisers with story links to their websites and Facebooks.
Last year 58,239 individuals opened the Ada Icon to read stories from, incredibly, 145 countries.
The top 10 are:
1. U.S.
2. Malaysia
3. Canada
4. United Kingdom
5. India
6. South Korea
7. Philippines
8. Japan
9. Australia
10. Germany
Maybe the Icon should begin Cantonese and Hindi editions.
Nearly every month, the Ada Icon has viewers from all 50 states.
Here are the top 10 of 2017:
1. Ohio
2. Michigan
3. Florida
4. Illinois
5. California
6. New York
7. Texas
8. Indiana
9. Pennsylvania
10. North Carolina
People from 541 Ohio villages and cities (that’s nearly all Ohio towns) viewed the Icon. Most lived in:
1. Ada
2. Kenton
3. Lima
4. Findlay
5. Bluffton
6. Bellefontaine
7. Wapakoneta
8. Dunkirk
9. Alger
10. Forest
Three-fourths of our readers live within 25 miles of Ada.
The most-read stories may surprise you. They were:
1. Little Mexico (now Tavern 101) has new owners and a new menu.
2. Viva Maria menu
3. Five taken to Lima Memorial Hospital.
4. Wilson football garage sale.
5. This house remembers many Christmases past (home at Lincoln Ave. and Johnson St.).
The year 2017 proved exciting to cover in news and stories, and we plan to continue increasing news, readers, and advertisers this year. Continue to check us out regularly (if you miss a day, you miss a lot), and “Like” us on Facebook.
