The first draft of history. Giving comfort to the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. Holding those in power to account.
These are the lofty goals that an educated public expects from journalists. But the public is also very interested in reading about weird things happening to rich people. Or cyclists crashing into bears. That much is clear when you look at a list of our most-clicked stories of the year. You won’t find any zoning bylaw controversies or city hall scandals on this list. But you will find all of the stories that caught fire online.
These are not necessarily the most important stories of the year, given our mandate as journalists, but there is still much to be learned from this list. So here you go – the most-clicked stories on nsnews.com for the year 2023:
1. Tesla 'Suddenly Accelerates' Into BC Ferries Ramp, Breaks In Two: They don’t come any richer than Elon Musk, and we’ve learned over the last few years that people LOVE reading stories about weird things happening to his Teslas. An investigation later revealed that the “sudden acceleration” mentioned in this article was just “driver error,” but that didn’t stop this from becoming our most-clicked story of 2023, earning more than twice as many views as the second-place post. Congrats, Elon.
2. Truck Loads of Oranges Dumped at North Vancouver Waste Centre: Reporter Nick Laba did some fine investigative work to peel back the layers of this controversy and squeeze out a juicy story. Forget pulp fiction – we’re coming at you with pulp facts.
3. Connor Bedard's Mom Melanie Speaks On Son Being Drafted To The NHL: Connor Bedard had a huge year, including a record-setting showing at the world juniors in January. But it was this story from July, right after he was picked No. 1 overall in the NHL draft, that ended up near the top of our most-clicked list. Big thanks to proud mom Melanie Bedard for giving us a peek behind the scenes.
4. 'Glad To Be Alive': Man T-bones Bear While Cycling in North Vancouver: Oh yeah, that’s the good stuff. You’d be hard-pressed to invent a more “North Shore” story than a cyclist running into a bear. Maybe if a dog was riding the bike? Or Bryan Adams? But no, this story actually happened, meticulously detailed by reporter Brent Richter. The crash sent the rider to hospital. The bear walked away seemingly unscathed, with nothing more than a wild story to tell all its bear buddies.
5. Why Did More Than 20 People Collapse at North Vancouver's Remembrance Day Ceremony? Concerned citizens wanted to know what happened, so reporter Mina Kerr-Lazenby found out. The answer was that many people fainted after standing still for a long time in heavy clothing on an unseasonably warm day. And they probably didn’t eat enough breakfast. Now you know.
6. Evicted For Airbnb, North Shore Tenant Says The System Is Failing: There’s an existential dread that many, many people in these parts have that they are living in a house of cards. This story shows what it can look like when it all comes crashing down.
7. West Van Buys Jimmy Pattison's Waterfront Home For $5.175M. This headline likely caught the attention of a lot of folks who read it and said: “huh?” It’s an interesting tale, with a touch of local celebrity to give it a boost. And Jimmy Pattison was nice enough to talk to us for the story! Good guy, Jimmy P.
8. West Van Condo Owners Ordered To Repair Structural Damage Caused By Unpermitted Reno: This is two years in a row that “unpermitted” construction work has cracked our most-clicked list. Be forewarned for 2024 – if you fire up a bulldozer and start dozing where you shouldn’t be dozing, our readers are going to enjoy reading about it.
9. Uber-Rich West Vancouver Couple's Court Fight Offers Glimpse Into Lavish One-Percenter Lifestyles: “She won’t have to sell the island cottage or the $1.5 million yacht, bought when she feared they’d need to escape West Vancouver during the pandemic.” That’s how reporter Jane Seyd started this story which details a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that offered a glimpse into the world of luxury. An (unnamed) wealthy couple was arguing in court over what kind of lifestyle each should be entitled to following their split. There’s some valuable info in there for anyone wondering what the going rate is for dog-friendly Learjet flights or luxury hotels in St. Barts….
10. Paddleboarder Has Close Encounter With Whale Off Deep Cove: Yay, whales! People love these stories. Don’t be surprised if something similar shows up on next year’s list. The only thing that could drive it any higher would be if someone crashed a bike into one. A reporter can always dream!
Happy New Year to all our readers. Let’s keep on clicking in 2024!
Andy Prest is the editor of the North Shore News. His humour/lifestyle column runs biweekly. [email protected]
