Top stories on PA Explore in 2023

Continuing with our round-up of 2023, we put the spotlight on Head of Analytics and Insights for PA Media, Peter Fabianski. In this post, Peter breaks down the data his team captured from usage generated by our editorial platform PA Explore, to tell us the top stories of 2023.

One of the interesting things about analysing any sort of data is that there is often more than one way to determine what the top performers are in a data set. Today, we are looking back at the biggest talking points of the year but rather than just looking at which stories had the most traffic on Explore, we are looking at Events. The event pages bring together all of PA’s words, pictures, videos, and graphics on a particular subject on a given day.

I can’t imagine it will come as a major shock to anybody that the coronation – or ROYAL Coronation 6 May to use the event’s full name – was the top event on Explore in 2023. What may come as a slight surprise is that the Photos tab garnered more traffic than any other section (for most events, the Leads tab gets the most visits). This was in no small part down to the quantity of quality images – our detailed planning meant we had many of the prime positions and even after careful curation, there were more than two thousand images on offer.

The closest challenger to the coronation was the return of David Cameron to government as Rishi Sunak sacked Suella Braverman. POLITICS Reshuffle 13 Nov was packed with updates, making the Latest tab the place to be – from James Cleverly’s trip to Downing Street during morning rush hour to the details of more junior appointments late in the evening, there were 90 short bursts of around 100 words each keeping all of our customers completely up to date throughout the day.

In the world of sport, the Lionesses’ appearance in their first ever World Cup final generated the most attention on Explore. A collection of quotes from footballers, royals, politicians, and celebrities was the most popular item on SPORT Lionesses 20 Aug, with the hundreds of images from the match, and of fans across the globe, also proving very popular.

It was another bumper year for our Entertainment team, with a number of front-page exclusives and features. On Explore, it was cancellation of Russell Brand’s performance at the Theatre Royal Windsor and further reports to the Met police on SHOWBIZ Brand 18 Sep which drew even more page views than when news of allegations against the comedian first broke.

On the City desk this year, we found that articles with a consumer angle gained a lot of attention on Explore – and it was the news of 1,332 further job cuts and the closure of 52 stores on CITY Wilko 5 Sep which saw the most traffic of all.

With an Olympics, a Euros tournament and a general election to come in 2024, I will be keeping my eyes glued to our dashboards to help our editors understand more about what content is resonating with our customers. 

Learn more about PA Media’s news coverage here: pa.media/news