When reporters sit down to write a story, they never know how it will be received.
Will it go viral—or will it fall flat?
TheBurg’s most popular online stories of 2024 are a case in point. I never would have guessed that most of these would rank among the top 10 most-read stories of the past year.
But who am I to second-guess our readers? We report stories, publish them, and the rest is up to you.
So, without further ado, here’s our annual list of our most-read online stories of 2024, as voted by your clicks. These stories garnered the most page views out of over 600 stories we published over the past year.
Owners Jason Crocenzi & Jennifer Draisey-Crocenzi
No. 10. Toy Story. As you may know, TheBurg operates on two tracks: daily, online news reporting and a monthly print magazine. The daily reporting tends to dominate this annual top 10 list, probably because those articles can only be read online. This past year was no exception. An August feature on the Treasure Trove Toy Store was the sole print magazine story to make the 2024 list. The story featured the greater mission of the owners, who not only sell toys and other goods, but make their store a hub for helping the homeless in Harrisburg.
Dan Snow
No. 9. Engineer Exit. City hall experienced a fair amount of churn in its top leadership in 2024. Harrisburg’s engineering department arguably had the most turmoil. After 1½ years without a full-time city engineer, Harrisburg hired Dan Snow in August 2023. However, he lasted only until the following March, as we detailed in our ninth most-read story of 2024. A few months later, Harrisburg hired a replacement, Joel Seiders, who, as of this writing, is still in the post.
No. 8. Thriving. In 2024, several affordable housing projects opened, with more planned, certainly a bright spot for Harrisburg over the course of the year. Our story about one of those projects, an apartment building specifically for homeless young adults, made our top 10 list. In November, Thrive Housing Services debuted a newly renovated, 16-unit building for 18- to 24-year-olds on the 200-block of S. 13th Street in Allison Hill. With it, young people now will have a place to live as they develop life and job skills, headed for a more promising future.
Sonya McKnight
No. 7. News Judgment. At TheBurg, we don’t usually follow the crowd. If a story is being covered by every other news outlet in town, we often will take a pass, saving our scarce reporting resources for less-followed news. That said, we will jump into the scrum if a local story is especially newsworthy. In our view, the case of suspended Magisterial District Judge Sonya McKnight, charged for allegedly shooting her ex-boyfriend, is one of those exceptions. In 2024, we wrote several stories on McKnight, including one from August that made our most-read list. Expect more coverage in 2025, as the case proceeds towards a possible springtime trial.
No. 6. Vending Essentials. Like many cities, Harrisburg has long had a homelessness crisis, a subject we wrote about many times in 2024. Just one of those stories made our top 10 list—and it was only indirectly related. In July, UPMC and Penn State College of Medicine launched a “Health to Go” vending machine outside of the UPMC Harrisburg emergency room, giving 24/7 access to free health items such as naloxone, fentanyl test strips, wound care kits, personal care items and pregnancy tests, among other items. The story was widely read and shared, a testament to the need in our community.
No. 5. Recycle Vibe. In late June, we published a short online article about a new recycling initiative from three local groups: Ngozi’s Let’s Get Dirty!, the Bridge and Harrisburg Area Camp Curtin YMCA. They partnered with Harrisburg-based Precision Recyclers to create two sites for the free disposal of end-of-life electronics. At TheBurg, we often write these types of community stories: concise, informative, impactful—I’d say we specialize in them. But did I expect this one to be among the most popular of the year? No, I did not.
No. 4. Sliced Wrong. So, this has never happened before. Back in May, we published a story about how two well-known local restaurateurs were combining forces to open a new pizza shop called Slice of Midtown, thus creating tons of buzz for the business. And then we waited and waited and waited some more for the place to open. Each year, we write stories about planned businesses, and, over our history, only a few have ultimately failed to open. None of those, though, has been among our most popular stories of the year—until right now.
No. 3. Dive In. In November, we broke the story about a new restaurant and bar headed to Midtown Harrisburg—the High Dive. This is the latest concept from veteran restaurateur Josh Kesler, who promises an artsy take on the traditional dive bar, a comfortable venue where you can get both a cheap beer and a craft cocktail. Incidentally, Kesler is a veteran occupant of our annual list. Last year, his purchase of Cork & Fork in Harrisburg was the seventh most-popular story of 2023. As long as Kesler keeps opening restaurants, we’ll continue covering them.
No. 2. Thanks Des! At TheBurg, we still believe in nuts-and-bolts reporting, so we cover most Harrisburg City Council meetings. Rarely does a meeting story count among our most popular, but a July story proved to be an exception. Most of the online article involved the rather mundane issue of council denying a building demolition—boring, huh? But the story’s popularity may lie more with our second topic. Scrolling down, readers found out that council had approved a ceremonial street-name change to honor long-time super-volunteer Destry “Des” Mangus. That, plus the picture we published of Des with council members, may have elevated the story into the runner-up spot for 2024.
Nelson Mena, the managing partner of Karma
No. 1. Great Karma. Our No. 1 story of 2024 came as no surprise to us. Simply put, it had it all. In May, we broke the story that the old Stallions nightclub would be bought, renovated and rebranded as “Karma.” This online story, then, had all the elements of a very popular story for TheBurg. It was a new business (check), a restaurant/bar (check) a building project (check) and headed by well-known local people (check). The fact that we had the story first, before other local media, further secured its status as our most popular story of 2024. So, let that formula be a lesson to anyone hoping to top our charts in 2025.
For a different take on 2024, I will have my annual list of top local news stories in the January magazine, which drops on Dec. 30. Does my list differ from that of our readers, who voted with their clicks? Return on Monday to find out!
Lawrance Binda is publisher/editor of TheBurg.
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