The Vineyard Gazette’s total print circulation remained flat this year, as traffic to its website continued double digit growth.
Total average circulation for the Gazette over the past 12 months was 8,903, compared with 8,823 for the same period last year. Paid circulation was 8,472 compared with 8,569 in 2011, a 1.1 per cent decline.
Nonprofit organizations on the Vineyard looking for volunteer help can now advertise their openings for free in the Vineyard Gazette.
This week the Gazette is introducing a new classified advertising category called Volunteer Opportunities, which will appear in both the print edition of the newspaper and online at mvgazette.com. Any tax-exempt charitable or arts organization wishing to advertise for unpaid help may do so without charge, said Jane Seagrave, publisher of the Gazette.
The Vineyard Gazette won 27 awards in the annual New England Better Newspaper Contest this year, including general excellence, the top prize awarded in the winter contest for small newspapers for 2011. “An outstanding, fascinating weekly newspaper. Superb newspaper writing. It should be studied in journalism classes on community newspapers,” judges wrote.
The following are the most popular stories on the Vineyard Gazette's website from 2011, based on page views.
A superior court judge has dismissed a political operative’s lawsuit claiming he was libeled by news stories in the Vineyard Gazette and The Boston Globe over his behavior, including his arrest, on the Island during the run-up to the 2008 presidential campaign.
The Vineyard Gazette’s coverage of the Menemsha fire earned the newspaper a Publick Occurrences Award this week from the New England Newspaper and Press Association.
The award, which honors outstanding journalism, was announced Thursday at NENPA’s fall conference in Natick. About 150 publishers, editors and reporters from throughout New England attended the awards ceremony. Gazette publisher Jane Seagrave accepted the award on behalf of the Gazette’s news staff.