WSJ.com’s biggest day in 2011 was Jobs’ death

WSJ.com’s highest-traffic day this year, by visits, was Oct. 5, when Steve Jobs died, edging out Aug. 8, when U.S. stocks fell 7 percent.

That’s according to a tweet from Zach Seward, editor of outreach and social media at the Journal.

Seward also tweeted on Thursday that WSJ.com’s busiest month, by unique visitors, was August, which saw the fall of Tripoli, London riots, a market crisis, and Hurricane Irene.

Specific data on the busiest days and months for the business newspaper’s website were not available, said a spokeswoman when contacted by Talking Biz News.

The Journal has been aggressive in the past few years in expanding its online content, which now includes a series of online-only video shows, including “The Hub” every morning at 8:30 a.m. EST.

The site was redesigned and relaunched in 2008, and the paper has more than 1 million subscribers to its online content. About two-thirds of its online content is behind the pay wall.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.