Your Top 6 Stories of 2012

Readers' top stories of the year weren't always the "top" stories of the year, but there was signficant overlap with those most of us would call important or newsworthy.

If you'd like to compare this list to a more-newsy list, check out Geneva Patch's "year in review" series loosely titled "Geneva Newsmakers of 2012." The series looks at the people who made the news but also reflects both the most important stories and the most popular stories of the year.

There's no doubt that the No. 1 story was also the one most-followed by Geneva Patch readers. The No. 2 most-read story falls into the category that's (perhaps sadly) always at the top of the reading list: celebrities.

The remainder in this list represents individual stories that made the top 30 most-viewed articles of 2012, or a category of articles that had one or more articles in the top 30.

It should be noted that, of the top 30 articles, 19 were in the category of teachers contract negotiations. One of the articles was a "viral" story we're not counting, because even though it was "localized" for Geneva, the topic wasn't strictly Geneva-centric.

We put the remaining most-read articles under category "headers." The bullet-point headlines you see below each subhead represent single articles that made the "top 30" list.

It's a little skewed toward articles published in the past few months, I think, because the overall audience of Geneva Patch continues to grow at (to me) an astonishing pace. So a middle-of-the road article published this month likely would perform higher than the top story at the beginning of the year.

I publish this list annually because I think it's an interesting indicator of what stories resonate in this medium of hyper-local news and information. Local government, public safety, personalities and celebrities, social issues and breaking news—these seem to be the reasons people tune in to Patch.

Here are the top six, in reverse order:

(6) Broviak Vs. GMS South 

• MSNBC: Broviak Blasts GMS South Administrators for 'Rummaging' Daughter's Facebook Page

(5) Fatal Car Crashes

• Police Name Driver In Fatal Kirk Road Crash Wednesday

(4) Nicole Weisner

(3) Todd Searcy: A Gay Athlete's Journey

(2) McCarthy/Urlacher/Baldwin

• Are Jenny McCarthy and Brian Urlacher Temporary Genevans?
• More Urlacher-McCarthy Sightings in Geneva

(1) Teachers Contract Negotiations

• An Open Letter to Geneva Teachers
• UPDATE: Geneva Teachers Set to Strike on Monday; GEA Issues Press Release
• Tentative Geneva Teachers Agreement Struck; School in Session Monday
• Geneva Teachers Express Frustration Over Stalled Negotiations
• GEA Posts Open Letter to Geneva Citizens
• Where Do You Stand on the Geneva Teachers' Union Negotiations?
• Here's a Look at Teacher Salaries in School District 304

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