Mobile App is Attracting Attention

A push by The Orion PR team and timely updates by a new manager have revived interest in the paper's mobile app.

Taylor Sinclair's team ran a contest in mid-September that gave away tickets to the Taste of Chico if users would download the app and tweet at the @theorion_news account. The day the winners were announced was the single highest day for page views in the history of the app -- almost 7,000!

The number of people who had downloaded the app also increased, from 521 at the end of the summer to 710 by the end of this week. The rate of downloads doubled from about two a day to more than four.

All those extra eyeballs had an effect on overall traffic, too. Page views for the month were 20,783 compared to the average monthly number of views from the previous 12 months of 4,000. Even taking away the blip from the day the contest results were announced, that's still a 10,000-page-view increase.

Some of that increase might have been the result of design and content tweaks by new app manager Esmeralda Ramirez, a former Orion online editor. She introduced a new eye-catching theme and expanded the menu to offer readers access to more features and services.

If you haven't yet, you can download The Orion mobile app here.