T-Squared: Trib Traffic Hits New Monthly Record

The August numbers are in, and we're thrilled to report that the Tribune set a new monthly traffic record, far outpacing our previous high-water mark. In August, we hit 655,852 uniques on a total of almost 1 million visits, itself a new record. (Uniques, of course, are the number of specific individual visitors to the site; total visits reflects all visits to the site, including multiple visits from one unique user.)

Our previous high was 540,254 uniques in May, at the height of the legislative session. The fact that we set a new record in the traditionally slow month of August makes us even more pleased. Of course, while August may be a slow month for some, it hasn't been for Gov. Rick Perry, and as his campaign for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination has picked up steam, so has our coverage — and our traffic. At 3,294,257, August page views were also strong. 

A good deal of the traffic increase comes from new visitors from around the country coming to read and view the Tribune's Perry reporting, which is increasingly cited by the leading news organizations around the country. You also may have noticed that Trib Assistant Managing Editor Emily Ramshaw teamed with The New York Times' Manny Fernandez to report on Perry and states' rights for our first-ever Times page-one story. Expect more collaborations, and not only with the Times, as the campaign continues.

The last day of August brought further good news — notification that we are a finalist in the Online News Association's general excellence category (which we won last year). We're enormously honored to be included in this top-notch group of fellow nominees: California Watch and the Center for Investigative Reporting, FRONTLINE, ProPublica and the Voice of San Diego. Our congratulations to them as well. 

And thank you. As always, we are profoundly grateful to our readers and our many supporters.