According to the British newspaper The Guardian, their rival The Daily Mail's website, Mail Online, set a daily traffic record when judge Thokozile Masipa finally handed a five-year prison sentence to double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius in the killing of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early morning of Valentine's Day, 2013.
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The Daily Mail website reported that it secured nearly 14.4 million unique browsers on Oct. 21 - the day that the Pistorius sentence was delivered. The views were 2.3 million higher than the daily October average for the news site.
The total number of views, the Guardian reported, surpassed the previous record on Sept. 2, which was the day that the Islamic State published the video of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff's beheading. The Pistorius verdict garnered 50,000 more unique views.
The sentencing had quite a buildup from the trial's start in March, 2014. The daily proceedings of the trial made international news on a daily basis - except for the 30-day psychological evaluation Pistorius was ordered to serve for a possible general anxiety disorder.
The evaluation was negative, but it served to build up the drama when the trial resumed and kept the audience's attention through the verdict in mid-September and the verdict a month later.
June Steenkamp, one of several people to have written a book in the aftermath of the Steenkamp-Pistorius tragedy, has granted several interview requests that have kept the topic in the news cycle.
The prosecution now has appealed the five-year sentence pinned to Pistorius for the culpable homicide charge for Reeva's death.
The defense has countered, saying the prosecution has no right to appeal the culpable homicide charge. A month after Pistorius learned of his fate, the world continues to watch to see what will happen next.
Are you surprised that the Oscar Pistorius verdict received more page hits on the Daily Mail than the beheading of U.S. journalist Steven Sotloff? Comment below or tell us @SportsWN.
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