At this point, 2018 best-of lists are likely glutting your Facebook newsfeed. All of my friends are self-publishing their end-of-year favorite movie and album lists. (If you’re wondering, my favorite movie this year was Crazy Rich Asians and album was a two-way tie between Kacey Musgraves’ Golden Hour and her husband Ruston Kelly’s Dying Star.) All those lists can be a little much. They can wear on you a bit.
But then there are those lists, like the ones below, that have actual data behind them—that actually mean something.
It’s been an amazing year here at saratoga living. We’ve been through a complete nuts and bolts redesign/rebrand, and this native Saratogian couldn’t be more proud of the results. We have a beautiful print publication, and a website that has thrust this wonderful brand into the 21st century. Regarding the latter, I’m a true believer in the power of the web, and as Director of Content at saratogaliving.com, I’ve had a front-row seat to the meteoric growth of our online audience. And it’ll only grow from there.
So to toast our 2018, I’ve created a list of the top 10 most popular stories on saratogaliving.com for the year—in other words, the ones you sat down and read the most. And for that, I thank you, wholeheartedly. Without you, none of this would’ve been possible. So without further ado…
Top 10 Most Popular Stories On saratogaliving.com
1. The Saratoga 20: Local Superstars Who Are Changing The Way We Think About Saratoga – This was our 20th Anniversary Special Issue cover feature, and it clearly resonated with you guys. (It’s listed as a “Staff Report,” because it really was an all-hands-on-deck-type feature.) Given how popular the piece turned out to be online, we ended up publishing a follow-up gallery featuring outtakes from Senior Photographer Dori Fitzpatrick’s next-level shoot.
2. Mercantile Kitchen & Bar, A Diner Serving All-Day Breakfast, Opens In Downtown Saratoga – One of the things I’ve been most surprised by this year as Director Of Content at saratogaliving.com? How much our web audience enjoyed our food and restaurant stories. What does that tell me? Saratogians are hungry, very hungry.
3. Pig N’ Whistle, A New Irish-Themed Restaurant, Opens In Downtown Saratoga – Read the previous blurb.
4. How Saratoga Springs Suddenly Emerged As America’s Best Small City Restaurant Destination – This was the cover feature for our “The Best Of Everything” special issue, and it was our first story written by Kevin Sessums. (His byline has appeared in the pages of top publications such as Vanity Fair and Travel + Leisure.) At the end of the day, it was another food story, so our audience ate it up. But it’s an amazing read, too. If you haven’t had the chance, get to it!
5. Saratoga County Restaurant Week Kicks Off This Thursday – Props for this late-breaking story go to former saratoga living Senior Writer Sophia Perez. I assigned it to her at the end of the day, she made it happen on deadline, and it became one of our most-read stories ever. Boom!
6. Marylou Whitney: The Savior Of Saratoga – saratoga living‘s former Editor, Maria McBride Buccifero, wrote this story for our “The Races!” Issue, which covered all things horse racing. (Maybe you got the cover of your magazine signed by star Jockeys José and Irad Ortiz?) Marylou Whitney means so much to this town, and we wanted to do right by her. I think we hit a home run.
7. SPAC Announces Ambitious Plans For 2019 Season With Performance Dates And More – I don’t know about you, but I can’t get enough of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. Whether it’s got the ballet, Philadelphia Orchestra or John Fogerty from Creedence Clearwater Revival, it fires on all cylinders for me. And this sneak-peek we gave folks to the 2019 season clearly struck a chord.
8. Italian Restaurant Solevo Kitchen + Social Opens In Downtown Saratoga Springs – See a pattern forming?
9. Former Schenectady Mayor, Al Jurczynski, Is Now Driving An Uber Around Saratoga – When I stepped inside the former Schenectady Mayor’s Uber, I had no idea that I would be interviewing him and writing about the experience months later. He was just taking me five minutes up the road to Woody’s Barbershop for a trim, but that interaction turned out to be one of my favorite write-ups for the site all year. (On a semi-serious note, the Albany Times Union wrote its own version of this story, nowhere linking to or mentioning my original and first report. I thought it was bad journalism, to be quite honest. But then again, sometimes it takes butchering a story to realize how good the original actually was. I’ll let you make up your mind.)
10. EXCLUSIVE: Why Peter Mullin, President Of The American Bugatti Club, Parked His Automotive ‘Mona Lisa’ In Saratoga Springs – I loved how this story came together in such a short period of time. If you’re a car person, you know how big a deal Mullin is, and saratogaliving.com was able to score a global (!) exclusive with him. He’s not the type that talks to the press all that often, so it was even more special that we landed the interview with him and his wife on our home turf. That “Mona Lisa” of a Bugatti that he owns he parked at the reflecting pool in the Saratoga Spa State Park for everybody in attendance at this year’s Saratoga Wine & Food Festival to gawk at. And gawk we did. What a ride!
Bonus! Top 5 Most Shared Stories On saratogaliving.com
1. Pig N’ Whistle, A New Irish-Themed Restaurant, Opens In Downtown Saratoga (1.6K shares on Facebook)
2. How Saratoga Springs Suddenly Emerged As America’s Best Small City Restaurant Destination (1.4K shares on Facebook)
3. The Saratoga 20: Local Superstars Who Are Changing The Way We Think About Saratoga (1.2K shares on Facebook)
4. Mercantile Kitchen & Bar, A Diner Serving All-Day Breakfast, Opens In Downtown Saratoga (1.2K shares on Facebook)
5. Iraq War Veteran On Why He Offers Fellow Vets Free Yoga Classes At His Troy Gym (1.2K shares on Facebook)
Double Bonus! Top 5 Most Popular Instagram Posts For @saratogaliving
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Hall of Springs appreciation post! ? #SLNY #lovewhereyoulive ?: @keckybendall
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Fall is in the air…literally! ? #LoveWhereYouLive #SLNY . . . ?: @cspoon_191
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(Note: These posts have been ordered in terms of total engagement, not just likes.)
