Last week, I took a look at the top newspapers on Facebook in terms of the number of Likes on their Facebook page.
Now let’s look at which papers have had the most growth in the past 18 months (since I had last updated numbers).
| Publication | Likes 12/13/12 | Likes 7/8/14 | Gain 18-months | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York Post | 65,141 | 1,509,960 | 2217.99% |
| 2 | The News & Observer (Raleigh) | 821 | 14,082 | 1615.23% |
| 3 | New York Daily News | 33,369 | 569,276 | 1606.00% |
| 4 | Cleveland Plain Dealer (cleveland.com) | 4,579 | 72,561 | 1484.65% |
| 5 | Investor’s Business Daily (LA) | 21,400 | 313,320 | 1364.11% |
| 6 | Albuquerque Journal | 3,361 | 39,495 | 1075.10% |
| 7 | Record (Hackensack – northjersey.com) | 3,776 | 39,128 | 936.23% |
| 8 | Tampa Tribune | 7,947 | 77,358 | 873.42% |
| 9 | Fresno Bee | 5,894 | 45,767 | 676.50% |
| 10 | USA Today | 308,002 | 2,359,779 | 666.16% |
| 11 | Tulsa World | 7,833 | 57,284 | 631.32% |
| 12 | State (Columbia, S.C.) | 9,260 | 62,803 | 578.22% |
| 13 | Chicago Sun Times | 17,375 | 111,293 | 540.54% |
| 14 | Newsday | 34,829 | 222,347 | 538.40% |
| 15 | Arizona Daily Star | 11,183 | 70,260 | 528.28% |
| 16 | News Journal (Wilmington) | 7,172 | 42,634 | 494.45% |
| 17 | Boston Herald | 10,341 | 60,147 | 481.64% |
| 18 | Modesto Bee | 6,744 | 39,071 | 479.34% |
| 19 | Riverside Press-Enterprise | 8,208 | 46,635 | 468.17% |
| 20 | Dallas Morning News | 22,830 | 122,367 | 435.99% |
It really stands out to me that the New York tabloids have decided to take Facebook very seriously in the past year and a half. USA Today had a big number then, and has really worked to grow it even more.
Smallest gainers
On the flip side, here are the papers that showed the least gain in that time. A few started with a big number already, but most appear to simply not take Facebook as seriously as I believe they should.
| Rank | Publication | Likes 12/13/12 | Likes 7/8/14 | Gain 18-months |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 109 | Orange County Register | 13,801 | 24,956 | 80.83% |
| 110 | El Paso Times | 35,876 | 64,702 | 80.35% |
| 111 | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette | 4,083 | 6,717 | 64.51% |
| 112 | San Antonio Express-News | 19,146 | 30,851 | 61.14% |
| 113 | Sarasota Herald-Tribune | 6,911 | 11,122 | 60.93% |
| 114 | Denver Post | 193,514 | 305,508 | 57.87% |
| 115 | Newark Star-Ledger | 25,357 | 39,319 | 55.06% |
| 116 | Philadelphia Daily News | 5,372 | 8,124 | 51.23% |
| 117 | Toledo Blade | 12,707 | 18,362 | 44.50% |
| 118 | Twin Falls Times-News | 5,083 | 7,329 | 44.19% |
| 119 | Evansville Courier & Press | 16,017 | 20,813 | 29.94% |