We were read in 2015: 300,000 visitors, a total of 10,000 hours of reading time.

Time for our success list. In 2015, we drew 60,000 more visitors than in 2014. That is something to be proud of. A website that focuses on the stories that the existing media find the small, and then figures like that. That we attracted those 300,000 visitors is one, that they spent an average of 2 and a half minutes per story is even better. That means we didn't clickbait bring, but serious, read-worthy content. Time to list those: the eight productions that attracted more than 2,000 visitors in 2015. But it is also time to add a few nuances.

Robots!

In January, our site hosted the Dance audience awards. In total, the pages on which that election took place attracted around 40,000 visitors, many of whom turned out not to be human after all. A few thousand visits turned out to be from robots, with which certain characters tried to influence the results in favour of certain dancers and companies. We foiled that attempt, but it took time and a lot of server capacity. Hence, this year's election is taking place in its own place: the website of our partner Dance audience.co.uk. The party erupts there in early January, in a new format, better protected from over-ambitious voting robots.

Dancers

That we are on map in the dance sector is a fact. Ruben Brugman, the man behind the audience awards, wrote an announcement in March about a new dance programme, to be broadcast in the autumn. That message suddenly started going viral during the broadcasts. Apparently, viewers google themselves all over the place during the broadcast, and this was one of the most substantive posts about that series. 8200 visitors spent an average of 3 minutes at this story.

Orchestra

Of course, the big story of 2015 was also the deconstruction of that Orchestra with Overijssel as its home base. Our raving (sometimes really) reporter Henri Drost has been on this case since 2012. So readers of his stories on Culture Press have long known what seemed to come as a total surprise to politicians this year: mismanagement, failing supervision and stupid politics have blown away millions of euros of subsidy money, and seriously threatened the survival of the music sector in the eastern Netherlands. If only they had read us earlier... 6,000 visitors took an average of 5 minutes each over the story from April, which definitively announced its demise.

Later this year, we will compile all the stories from past years into a handy (e)book. This year's stories alone attracted more than 20,000 visitors.

Refugees

Theatre-maker Ola Mafaalani did something in September that the establishment of the theatre industry found difficult to digest. She made theatre out of our inability to make art about real social issues. To reinforce her point, she brought 100 real, freshly arrived refugees on stage at her opening speech of the annual Theatre Festival, and put music to them. The report Wijbrand Schaap wrote about that event kept 3,600 people watching for an average of four minutes glued to the screen.

Basic infrastructure

October saw the end of primal liberal Thorbecke's regime. His credo from the 19^e century, that politicians should not judge the arts, was thrown out by the VVD itself. Through an uncoordinated but successful lobby of a number of art institutions, the VVD, together with the PvdA, devised a plan to admit a few nice festivals and other well-spoken institutions to the 'cultural basic infrastructure'. The money could well be coughed up by the arts funds and municipalities, which have been used by the government to finance the minister's plans before. In four days, the arts sector managed to prevent the opportunistic interference of national politics from killing the arts for good. VVD and PvdA withdrew their citation, and extra money was released for some extreme pain points after all. Wijbrand Schaap reported. 3,200 people could watch an average of three minutes of join in.

Rates

Music missionary Brechtje Roos expressed anger in April about the fees musicians receive for performing at subsidised festivals. The story struck a chord. We now know why: everywhere in the arts sector it is the managers and boards who have secured their positions, often at the expense of the people who do the real work: the artists. Galleries, musical producers, music festivals: it is the performing artists who take the hit. The broadcasters are just as hard at it. For 2016, this issue remains high on our agenda. Almost 3,000 visitors showed Brechtje's story for more than five minutes.

Grand

In Groningen, the Grand Theatre went bankrupt due to a combination of hubris, failed supervision and local scheming. Wijbrand Schaap got the tip-off and was able to bring the first story. Since then, we hear little more about it. Interim opinions have been issued, committees have been appointed, and now the good forces seem to have won out. There is theatre to be seen at the Grand. 2,800 people read the piece by Wijbrand Schaap from March. They took four minutes to do so. Average.

Hans

In August, Thea Derks paid her last respects to Hans van Beers, one of the most important figures in post-war cultural life. She did so impressively. 2150 people mourned with her. An average of 3 minutes per person.

And then this:

Although not in the top eight, but 1068 visitors spent an average of six-and-a-half minutes watching a single advertisement look: that's what you get with and ordinary banner don't manage. Our new ad form, the 'submitted notice', works great, and costs a pittance. Idea for cultural entrepreneurs?

3,000 supporters?

Since two months, things have changed at our readers' cooperative. We have launched a campaign to really professionalise the club. This is the only way we can keep doing real investigative journalism, the only way we can keep spotting that art that otherwise stays under the radar. You can support us for as little as 60 euros a year, which converts to 17 cents a day, or 10 cents per story. Follow this link.