IN THE past two days, two stories on the same subject have brought 32,000 visitors to the Croydon Advertiser website.
Has there been another riot? Has a plane crashed in the middle of Croydon? Have Palace won the Premier League? (or, god forbid, appointed a new manager)
Nope – a nightclub has closed down.
When our chief reporter Gareth Davies uploaded the story about The Black Sheep on Monday lunchtime, I confidently predicted that, by evening, it will have been the most-read story of the day on our site.
I was wrong. By early evening, it was actually the most-read story of the month.
Thousands upon thousands of people read and shared the story via social media, while others were keen to share their memories and mourn the passing of this beacon of their youth.
Sometimes web stats can be given what you might call an 'artificial' boost – retweets by a celeb or being picked up on by some crazy American website can often provide an unexpected spike.
But not here – this was just a proper local story which resonated with a great deal of people.
Why? Well, it's all about Nostalgia – not in the wartime, Pathe news sense, but the Facebook/Twitter generation, with 2.4 children, longing to recall their lost youth of snakebite, shots, and dad dancing (just me then).
One thing's for sure, they'll be plenty on the Black Sheep's closure in Friday's paper.
After all, 32,000 people can't be wrong!
