ClickOnDetroit.com is Metro Detroit's No. 1 news website for 2017 according to the comScore data (2017 average). The website beat out all other newspaper and television websites in the DMA.
"2017 was a huge year for ClickOnDetroit. We had a goal to not just be Detroit's top TV website but to be top choice for news and information for our local community and beyond," said Local 4 Vice President and General Manager Marla Drutz. "We did it."
The station took an ambitious and pragmatic approach to create opportunities for growth and to make WDIV more interactive with digital users.
"ClickOnDetroit's success literally starts every day with managing editor Dave Bartkowiak and social media producer Ken Haddad planning for and executing breaking news coverage," said Digital Executive Producer Dustin Block. "They work with the WDIV newsroom to expand coverage and take stories and ideas in new directions to engage and inform our audience. They've turned ClickOnDetroit into an indispensable source for local news in Metro Detroit."
ClickOnDetroit 2017 highlights include:
* Owning huge multi-day stories like the October 2017 power outage and leading the coverage of White Boy Rick, the teen drug dealer paroled after 30 years in prison.
* Increased engagement with "Vote 4 the Best," a local user-voted competition that encompasses 173 categories, involves 2,500 local businesses and generated participation through more than 480,000 votes.
* Big, live events like "The Ford Fireworks" and "America's Thanksgiving Parade" garnered online viewers from more than 100 countries. Online viewership was up significantly for both shows from the prior year.
* Multiplatform engagement stories like "Ignore the Snore" dovetailed off of broadcast segments and connected users who have snoring problems with specialists to help. "Opioid Nation" tackled the issue of the opioid crisis with a help hotline for addicts.
* Increase in original digital programming with daily shows like "Jason Carr Live" and "Midday Live." Specials and interactive features: Defenders investigative journalism shows; "LITD Extra" Live in the D viewer input segments; live weather updates; Help Me Hank consumer specials; missing children webcasts; and "Car Cast" continuous online weather and traffic updates during severe weather.
* Through a commitment to community and engagement via "4 Frenzy," more than 60 schools are involved, generating onsite tailgating events, thousands of votes, newsletter signups, student liaison partnerships with the Local 4 and other points of engagement.
ClickOnDetroit, a Graham Media Group website, with 871,439 unique visitors beat its nearest TV and newspaper competition (Freep.com/853,164), (MLive.com/833,456), (WXYZ.com/643,906), (DetNews.com/522,430) on average during 2017. The site continues to increase its share of unique visitors on mobile platforms, desktop and the ClickOnDetroit app.
Local 4's ClickOnDetroit app is an important part of the station's digital commitment, sending push alerts that notify users when breaking news is happening in their communities.