A look back at the top Florida stories and headlines of 2024 – WJXT News4JAX
WEATHER ALERT
Carianne Luter, Digital Media & Engagement Manager
Published:
Carianne Luter, Digital Media & Engagement Manager
Each year, our readers’ interests change.
Some of our readers search for crime stories, some politics, entertainment, sports — the list goes on.
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But some News4JAX Florida stories really topped the charts this year.
They made you laugh, cry, share with friends, and bring our communities together.
According to Chartbeat, the real-time and historical analytics tool used by News4JAX, our Florida news stories on News4JAX.com received 2.91 million impressions. Readers found our content by searching keywords such as “Florida news,” “breaking Florida news headlines,” and “Florida news headlines today.”
Now that you know how many people found News4JAX’s stories in 2024, let’s go over the Florida headlines that gained the most traction on News4JAX.com.
Our reports on new Florida laws in 2024 garnered hundreds of thousands of views, but as we gear up to head into a new year, one story stood out.
Since Dec. 2, 2024, this article has been read 140,363 times with 125,574 total engaged minutes. The story informed viewers about the new Florida laws they can expect heading into the new year, such as social media restrictions for children, updated building regulations, making threats to first responders a first-degree misdemeanor, and more. You can read the full story here.
Another top story that gained interest from not only Florida but from those in other states, was making fishing and hunting a constitutional right after Floridians affirmed it by voting to approve Amendment 2. The amendment, which only needed 60% of the vote to pass, received a 67% “yes” from Florida voters. We broke down what Floridians could expect after the vote passed. The story was read 95,500 times. You can read the full story here.
Amendment 4, an initiative that would’ve limited the government’s interference with abortion in Florida, failed this year, meaning the state’s six-week abortion law will stand. Florida is one of the first states to reject abortion rights in a ballot measure since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Read the full story here.
Residents at an Orange Park apartment complex were startled to discover an unexpected visitor in November — a monkey that was seen climbing in a tree. As you can imagine, people went bananas, making this one of our top local head-scratchers of the year. You can read the full story here.
In August, a St. Augustine woman had an unwelcome visitor stop by her home — a little green iguana. The reptiles are not native to Florida and are considered an invasive species. Florida Fish and Wildlife recommends green iguanas be humanely killed for that reason. This didn’t sit well with many Floridians. Kill a cute little iguana? But, the FWC had a good reason for saying it. Click here to read the full story.
The talk of December was drones. Many people took to social media after seeing mysterious moving lights in the sky. Some even saw them hovering over Jacksonville. The mysterious drone sightings in New York and New Jersey landed in Jacksonville after a teen spotted a questionable aircraft in the sky. News4JAX aviation expert Ed Booth weighed in. Here’s what he had to say about it.
It was a busy year for Florida in the weather department. In all, the 2024 season produced 18 named storms, 11 hurricanes, and 5 major hurricanes. It will go down as one of the most destructive and deadliest seasons on record. Here are some of the top weather headlines from this year.
The year started off with devastation. In January, communities around Panama City had to clean up after at least four reported tornadoes touched down and destroyed several homes and businesses. Several people were hurt. The scenes were reminiscent of the time Hurricane Ivan tore through in 2004, Hurricane Michael came through in 2018 as a Category 5 hurricane. Read the full story.
Hurricane Milton had a total of 35 fatalities—32 in the United States and three in Mexico—after it hit Florida’s West Coast and tore through Georgia, The Bahamas, Mexico, and South Carolina in October. At least 46 confirmed tornadoes touched down in Florida ahead of the storm, during a prolific tornado outbreak that occurred between October 8–9. More Hurricane Milton coverage can be found here.
What’s a yearly story wrap-up without mentioning some of the bizarre stories we covered?
You read that correctly. This year, a video stunned viewers after a boy helped wrangle an alligator after it ended up on Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway in Jacksonville. The child can be seen on camera, helping to tape up the gator’s mouth. News4JAX later learned the boy comes from a family of alligator trappers. Check out the full story here.
The headline itself had readers clicking on this article, because — what? This story told the weird tale of periodical cicadas that intrigued and educated. “These insects are the strongest urinators in the animal kingdom with flows that put humans and elephants to shame. They have pumps in their heads that pull moisture from the roots of trees, allowing them to feed for more than a decade underground. They are rescuers of caterpillars.” Read the full story here.
After finding the aforementioned story had “STD” in the headline, it appeared to be a trending keyword our readers flocked to. A story originally published in 2022 dug deep into why The Villages was known as “the STD capital of the United States” and why the central Florida senior haven has fielded rumors about swingers and public sex for decades. Here’s what the story found.
Although our positive stories weren’t analytically in our top articles in 2024 — for whatever reason people don’t gravitate to our positive coverage as they (unfortunately) do our negative stories — we had dozens of positive stories that remain fresh in our brains.
Here are a few positive stories from 2024 that we will leave you with as we enter 2025.
The owner of Angie’s Subs, a beloved Jacksonville Beach eatery, put out the call for donations to help hurricane-devastated communities in North Carolina in October. And his customers, and other local businesses, jumped into action. Donations poured in, and even Gate Gas donated 500 gallons of diesel fuel for the trip. Read the full story here.
A post shared by Angie’s Sub Shop ™️ (@angiessubshop)
The last Positively Jax award given out for 2024 may have been our favorite. We were all in tears of joy this year as we witnessed the surprise of a lifetime. A Jacksonville Beach neighborhood, News4JAX and Closets by Design celebrated two local heroes Friday—CJ and Melvin—who were honored with the Positively JAX award for their exceptional dedication and kindness. Community members, News4JAX and Closets by Design celebrated the local heroes, and the surprise will forever live rent-free in our minds.
It was in the top five Positively JAX stories of the year. News4JAX stepped up to help Jacksonville’s oldest and longest-continuously operating barbecue restaurant stay in business after a rush of support came in after our coverage in October. Wendy Holley, the owner of the historic business, told News4JAX that she was ecstatic and overwhelmed with gratitude. She mentioned that after our report, business picked up and she no longer worries about closing the shop. Read the full story here.
In all, News4JAX.com received 89.96 million pageviews. The top categories were crime, law and justice, disaster and weather, economy, sports, education and entertainment, arts and culture. Our top sections included local news, weather, politics and sports.
If you read a story on News4JAX.com this year, thank you. We can’t wait for 2025.
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