We know youre out there, WE Vancouver readers. We know youre picking up a copy of this weeks edition from one of the street boxes, or maybe from the stack in your condo lobby. Perhaps you are sitting at the coffee shop waiting for a friend and youve started leafing through our pages.
Its impossible for us to stand over the shoulder of everyone reading the ink-and-newsprint version of the paper (we love you) to find out what stories catch your eye.
Thanks to Google analytics, however, we know a lot more about which stories our online readers (we love you, too) enjoy the most.
Heres a list of the Top 10 WE Vancouver online stories for 2012.
1) Best of the City Dining Out results. This is the go-to place for people who want to know the best places in the city to eat. Boy, do we love our restaurants! (Dont forget to go to the contest page to vote for next years winners.)
2) Hey Oceans Ashleigh Ball as the voices of Applejack and Rainbow Dash on My Little Pony. Thanks to this story, we now know about the phenomenon called Bronies men who like My Little Pony. There are more of them than you think
3) Tap and Barrel. After so many doom and gloom stories about Olympic Village, along came Daniel Frankel. He believed in the neighbourhoods potential so much that he opened his first Tap and Barrel here and judging from its success, it will indeed be the first of many.
4) Devon Brooks speaks out about sexual assault. Wow. This is one very brave, smart and determined young women. The co-founder of the Blo hairstyling salons talks openly about her experiences as a way of reaching out to others. A powerful story!
5) 10 Things to Do in Vancouver. We asked Vancouver Foodster Richard Wolak to share the 10 dishes that people absolutely, positively had to try before summer ended. No wonder he won best food blogger in our Best of the City (see #1.)
6) It Aint Over Yet. If theres anyone who knows about the future, its an astrologer. Back in January, we asked our horoscope columnist, Free Will Astrologys Rob Brezsny, to calm our fears about the end of the world. Just as he predicted, it didnt happen on December 21.
7) Ryan Holmes Suite Success. What Lululemon did for yoga clothing, Hoot Suite has done for social media put Vancouver on the world map. It all started when Holmes won a computer in grade school and had to turn it on using booster cables attached to the family car. For a kid who grew up off the grid, he certainly has risen to power quickly.
8) The opening of the Sardine Can. Its not like Vancouver is bereft of restaurants. But the opening of this tiny restaurant in Gastown was greeted with huge line-ups of people eager to try the Spanish-inspired dishes.
9) Sean Orrs tour of Gastown. He calls most of Vancouver a modern-day Potemkin village a shiny exterior that disguises a fake city. Gastown, however remains a very real, and very much loved, place for him.
10) Glowbal romance. Shannon Bosa-Yacoub and Emad Yacoub are the founders of the Glowbal Group, one of Vancouvers hottest collection of restaurants. They are also very, very much in love.
What will be the top stories of 2013? Thats the exciting part of working at a newspaper finding the stories that people want to read. Meanwhile, we wish all of our readers a 2013 filled with good news.
