Year's end is neither an end nor a beginning, but a going on, with all the wisdom that experience can install in us.
-- Hal Borland
The year 2008 has been a fast year, a strange year, a difficult year, a weird year.
It was a year of change, and one of those changes was our effort to put more and more of our breaking news on our Web site -- augustachronicle.com.
It's kind of fun, and best of all, it's easier to measure because the computer counts everything.
That's why I can tell you the top stories for every month of 2008.
Some are predictable. Some are surprises and some are ... well, read the list.
JANUARY: "Snow falls, four school systems delay classes"
Snow and school closings -- always a popular combination.
FEBRUARY: "Police seek motorist in fatal wreck"
This was the Interstate 16 wreck that killed two Lakeside High grads.
March: "Man to get child support back"
With 78,463 page views, this was our second-most-viewed story of the year. It involved a man who had paid child support for more than a decade, only to discover he wasn't the father.
April: "Brown auction items selected"
No single Masters story could top it.
May: "Man dead, woman wounded in Evans parking lot shooting"
Another breaking news story that attracted attention.
June: "Attorney arrested on drug charges"
July: Police seek gas thief who rigged pumps
August: "11 children found in squalid rural house"
SEPTEMBER: An editorial: "What Obama doesn't want you to know" was our most viewed entry of the month.
OCTOBER: "Mom killed by boy moving car"
NOVEMBER: "Broun says Obama 'Marxist' "
With 155,108 page views, this was our biggest entry ever. It started out with a routine assignment on a slow afternoon, when a reporter went to cover a speech at a civic club.
It ended up in the national news and on a number of popular political Web sites.
DECEMBER (AS OF DEC. 24): "School's staff implicated in sex scandal"
This is the Spirit Creek Middle School case that remains under investigation.
A national plug by Jay Leno probably helped.
Reach Bill Kirby at (706) 823-3344 or bill.kirby@augustachronicle.com.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2012. All Rights Reserved.
