THE Swan Hill Guardian is used to putting news in the headlines, not making
them.
But this week the focus has turned to the Swan Hill based tri-weekly,
thanks to a case of mistaken identity which has resulted in an unprecedented
spike in online traffic.
As the UK Guardian’s Australian digital edition went
live at 6am on Monday morning, thousands of internet users from across the world
typed the URL
into their address bars.
Little did they
know this domain name is home to the Swan Hill Guardian’s online news
website.
By the end of Monday the news page had recorded 10,165 unique
visitors, in comparison to its average hits of 900 per day.
At noon
yesterday that number had increased by an extra 3159 visitors.
The incident
has so far been reported by The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC Online, ABC radio and
various regional news sites.
Following Monday’s launch, The Guardian also
received an influx of emails congratulating the company on the new Australian
website, requesting jobs, offering to write columns, and pitching story
ideas.
While the extra attention has been welcomed, The Guardian’s general
manager Rob Duffield appeared on ABC News 24 yesterday morning to clear the
air.
Prior to the interview, Mr Duffield welcomed all visitors to the Swan
Hill based website, both accidental and otherwise.
“It’s fabulous to have
such incredible visitation to the site,” Mr Duffield said.
“We are very
grateful for the chance to showcase what our region has to offer.”
The
confusion caused by the website has been taken in good humour by most visitors
too, including Steve Petty who commented on The Guardian’s website on Monday.
“Well I was quite enjoying your site until I realised it wasn’t the
Australian version of the UK paper,” he wrote.
“Got a bit concerned when I
couldn’t find an option to change my locale settings and was seeing many stories
relating to a place called Swan Hill in Victoria. Nice site though, and thanks
for the correct link above.”
Another visitor, Glen, saw an opportunity to
explore the region’s potential, commenting:
“Nice little town you have
there. What’s the rental market like down there? And employment
prospects?”
Time will only tell what the transition of the UK Guardian’s
global online entities to a new domain name
later this year,
will have in store for Swan Hill’s humble news site.
