By David Vitrano

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – As organizations of all types take stock of the year that has just passed, L’Observateur is doing the same with a look at some of the headlines that kept mouses clicking and tongues wagging during 2010.

The newspaper will publish a Year in Review section in January, but with the new year here now, we wanted to take a quick look at how stories on our website, www.lobservateur.com, fared with readers.

Super Bowl fever no doubt contributed to the popularity of the story that garnered the most clicks last year. Although the story had nothing to do with the New Orleans Saints, a sports article called “Four locals still alive in NFL playoffs” came out on top of the list of the most popular stories for 2010. The article detailed four former River Parishes players as they competed in last year’s NFL playoffs. Although the popularity of the Saints no doubt helped garner interest in the piece, Google searches from people who had never heard of L’Observateur probably helped boost the “click count” for this one.

The article called “Major drug operation in St. John” ranked second on the list. Detailing the cooperative work of the St. John, St. Charles and Assumption parishes’ sheriff’s departments and the Louisiana State Police in rounding up local drug traffickers, the article’s popularity came as no surprise and crime and crime prevention stories generally pique the interest of community members.

Coming in third was “Oil Spill Recovery Effort.” The oil spill dominated the headlines for much of 2010, so its inclusion on the list was fairly predictable.

“Motorcycle accident claims life of LaPlace man” ranked fourth on the list of most popular articles. The short article seemed very much like others detailing traffic fatalities, but its popularity may be explained by the victim’s social status or by the very fact that the accident involved a motorcycle.

Rounding out the top five was a story still fresh on the minds of the local community, “Neighbors still reeling from murder of teen.” The murder of Taylor Adams and the subsequent manhunt and arrest riveted the community in the early days of December, so its popularity hardly comes as a surprise.

Perhaps a more telling measure of a story’s popularity, however, may be the number of user-generated comments it receives. Compared to the most “clicked-on” stories, these stories paint a much more accurate picture of the psyche of the River Parishes.

During the fall at the height of high school football season, East St. John High School’s football coach and athletic director, Larry Dauterive, grabbed headlines, but not for the school’s then-undefeated season. “Emotions high as Dauterive resigns,” a story that played out over regional airwaves as well as in print, received the most comments out of any story in 2010. What’s more, the story probably had the widest range of comments as well, with some taking up for Dauterive’s comments that led to his resignation and others saying his resignation was necessary. With the School Board recently deciding to reject Superintendent Courtney Millet’s recommendation to fill the position and instead advertise for candidates, it is a story that has not yet reached its conclusion.

“Oil Spill Recovery Effort” was the only story to appear on both top-five lists.

Coming in at second on the list of most talked about stories, the article’s discussed a topic that gripped the entire region for months in 2010.

Another local, high profile crime garnered the third most comments from www.lobservateur.com visitors. “Victors ordered back to jail,” which detailed the latest developments in the Victor case, inspired a number of comments about the incident and the treatment of suspected criminals in St. John Parish in general.

Another story dealing with East St. John High School garnered enough comments to be number four on the list. “13 arrested in fight at east St. John High,” another story that had news vans swarming the area, dominated local water cooler chat in late September and even inspired a forum focused on eliminating delinquency in local youth.

Surprisingly, the fifth entry on this list was another seemingly innocuous traffic story. “Lockport couple charged in hit-and-run,” despite its subjects being from outside the River Parishes, had locals talking, probably because of the shocking nature of the crime described therein.