Gray wolf OR-143 was caught on video a few days before it was hit by a car and killed along Highway 138 near Lemolo Lake. Wildlife officials said it had lost its wariness toward humans. 

Rogue Valley Times reporters produced several stories last week that set records on our social media sites.

Four of those articles are now among the top 5 posts with the highest “total engagement” since we launched rv-times.com Feb. 6, according to a weekly report issued by our audience engagement editor, Julia Moore. Total engagement refers to the sum of reactions, comments, shares, post clicks and link clicks generated by a story we share on social media.

We study Julia’s reports with great interest, because buried in those numbers is information that helps us understand our readers.

The top story on our list, published June 12, was about the controversy over a new principal at South Medford High School titled “Report details past concerns with new principal at South Medford High School.” That story was read by 5,807 people and garnered 6,868 page views, but it was on social media where it really sizzled. That story racked up a 12% social engagement rate. To put it in perspective, the industry standard is 1% to 5%.

A follow-up story about the outgoing South Medford principal, Jeremy Hamasu, drew nearly as much reader interest and is now on our top 5 list, as well.

Two other stories that climbed into the top 5 were a piece about The Restaurant at Jacksonville Inn reopening, and a photo spread we published about the new Rogue X aquatic center taking shape at Wes Howard Memorial Park in west Medford.

The new No. 1 story on the list caught us a bit by surprise, a story about a male, year-old wolf that was struck and killed by a car near Lemolo Lake. That story reached more than 103,600 people on Facebook and so far has generated more than 2,200 reactions, 731 comments and 112 shares — and people are still arguing about that wolf on social media as I type.

Due to the widespread sharing and engagement last week, the Rogue Valley Times saw a 121.9% increase in new users from social media, Julia reported.

Our website saw an unusually high number of users June 16-17, which is heavily credited to the Jacksonville Inn restaurant story, a piece about homes at Royal Oaks Mobile Manor being deemed unfit for habitation, and a Shady Cove man sentenced to a double-life sentence for a double murder.

Stories that brought in the most new users last week included the double-murder conviction and the story about the principal controversy at South Medford High.

Other stories with very high engagement rates included the massive hack of driver’s license records at the Oregon Department of Motor Vehicles and a photo feature on the Medford Cruise.

Stories that hit the trifecta of top 10 active users, new users and engagement rates included the Jacksonville Inn restaurant reopening, the wolf killed by a car, and the DMV hack, Julia reported.

— David Smigelski, Rogue Valley Times editor