Must Read Alaska is finishing strong as we run through the tape of 2024, with readership that exceeded all expectations.
As a report to readers and all who support this publication, here are some of the interesting insights from 2024:
Visitors: This year, Must Read Alaska‘s news, commentary, and now Alaska-style recipes brought over 5.8 million visits from more than 1.8 million unique visitors. Since 2016’s launch of the website, it’s more than 38 million visits from all across the country.
Top story: The top story of the year was the one about John Quick’s new book, “The United States of Small Business,” which had an outstanding reception and made a business best-seller list at Amazon. John has been with Must Read Alaska since 2018 and helped launch and hosted the Must Read Alaska podcast for several years. His book is a compilation of interviews he has conducted with successful business people across America — people who started up their own businesses and had amazing successes; they shared with John the unique things they did that led to that success.
Comments galore: This year MRAK has approved nearly 64,000 comments on stories, which is about 95% of the comments made and an average of 27 comments per story. Since 2016, we’ve approved over 309,000 comments, (and we appreciate all of you who keep it respectful and do your best on spelling and grammar.)
Drilling deeper: Just how many stories were provided at Must Read Alaska in 2024? A total of 2,320. In total word count, that was 1.3 million words in 2024. We’ve got several great columnists who write regularly and now we’re featuring a fabulous “Foodies and Foragers” series written by Brenda Josephson, with recipes you will love to serve to your family and friends.
Newsletter: And all those amazing readership stats do not include the Must Read Alaska newsletter, which goes out three times a week and has 33,000 subscribers.
The newsletter is now in its 10th year, providing the side of the news ignored or misreported by Alaska’s legacy-leftist newsrooms.
Whew! It’s a lot of work but worth it because Alaska is worth it and Alaskans are the best people we know.
Yes, we are the bane of legacy media in Alaska, but Must Read Alaska thrives because readers support our work, helping us pay the bills.
You can help: Reader donations are the main source of revenue that keeps this independent journalism and commentary site going. Join us in reaching even more people in 2025.
We’ll start strong in 2025, thanks to you, our amazing readers and supporters. Let’s go, 2025!
Great conservative blog, addicting in fact.
Would like to see more comment screening to strengthen an already prestigious conservative site.
Also would not mind seeing more anti foreign exploitation of Alaska’s rich resources that leave the state, like Trumps shutting down of foreign owned pebble.
Summarize; America first.
Happy new year Mrs. Downing, MRA and all of its readers.
What a blessing to Alaska and Alaskans!
Thank you to the team at MRAk!
Here’s to 2025!
64,000 comments approved! If that’s roughly 30 seconds apiece then comment approval alone would have been 533 hours of work in 2024.
Nicely done, Suzanne.
Another year of that worthless … Lisa // “Daddy’s Little Princess”
Number of hours Suzanne spent reading comments: ?
.
Happy New Year, Suzanne!
Thanks! It’s enjoyable to read comments, so I don’t mind at all. – sd
If there is a “Journalist of the Year” award, it goes to Suzanne Downing. She is the most influential and talented writer/editor in Alaska, hands down.
Thank you for all you do at Must Read Alaska, Suzanne!
Happy New Year!
Big, big second!!!!
We need the truth about our state and the fishing industry.
Open Secrets estimates 16 billion spent on campaigns in 2024. It must of been a good year for the media.
This 100+ generation Alaskan wishes MRA would expand. The TV news media doesn’t report the news anymore. I will gladly donate.