I took responsibility for putting together our annual Bath Power List 2019 which we curate before having our readers vote for Bath’s most influential people.
With one hundred profiles to include it was a huge undertaking, but a key part of building our reputation as local experts.
Once published, I shared the list with everyone featured so they could mobilise their support base.
The reaction was huge, with more than 12,000 votes, hundreds of shares on social media, and a high level of engagement praising entrants or suggesting other worthy applicants.
I included some of them in a follow up story, promising they would be considered for the 2020 power list.
Although it took me days, I knew the story would be worth the effort.
The 2018 power list - put together by a previous colleague - had 29,277 page views. With our growing audience, my 2019 list had 39,431.
The announcement of the rankings had another 11,245. Most of those who our readers had voted to the top were people featured in our stories, which showed they had been impactful.
The number one spot, by a huge margin, was filled by Lisa Wells, a remarkable 31 year-old who was diagnosed with terminal cancer just weeks after the birth of her second child.
I had written about Lisa on a number of occasions in the past and her positive attitude and huge fundraising efforts really inspired people.
Sadly she passed away in the middle of voting and her crowning as the most powerful person in Bath in 2019 was a lovely tribute.
The whole exercise was not only beneficial for the paper, it was really useful to increase my knowledge of all the key people on my patch.
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