It’s been a year of change and new developments for online news at Queen’s University with the newly-launched Queen’s Gazette website replacing the Queen’s News Centre, which served as a reliable platform for keeping the university community informed and up-to-date for many years.

It has been an interesting year and with online statistics available we can tell you what the most-read stories are for 2014.

The Gazette’s most-viewed item for 2014 is the story about Queen’s placing within the Center for World University Rankings. There are a number of rankings each year – both international and domestic – but this one grabbed a lot of attention with just under 10,000 views as of Dec. 20. That number is all the more impressive as the story was published in July, during the slower summer months at the university.

The second most-viewed item is interesting in that it has only been on the Gazette site for two weeks yet has drawn more than 6,300 views. The story of the Board of Trustees approving the revitalization plan for Richardson Stadium obviously struck a chord with readers not only at Queen’s but also within the broader community.

Coming in with the third-most views was a story earlier in 2014 regarding a heartfelt loss for the Queen’s community. Ben Whitney, a staff member at Queen’s School of Business, passed away suddenly in January, and many community members connected through the Queen’s News Centre, with just over 5,000 views.

Other trends seen within the top stories are that the community wants to remain informed of what is going on at the university, with pension and budget process updates proving popular as well as some interesting research developments and awards for faculty and staff.