The Hillsboro Herald completed its 5th year on a roll, bringing news stories to the world that no one else dared to cover. From the massive layoffs at Intel Corp to the ongoing explosive growth of Data Centers, our community and its people were being pushed like never before by mid-year. Then came ICE, and 2025 was the year the residents of Hillsboro will never forget. Good people stood up and got to work on these issues. Politicians were reactive, not proactive. But our people stood up like never before and became the real story. We all found out that Calvary was not coming, that we are the cavalry. The Herald, by telling these stories like no one else, moved from “independent local newsroom” to something much more challenging to ignore: a growing new-media force for Western Oregon.
We published relentlessly. We covered Intel’s uncertainty and layoffs, the data-center and energy boom, land-use fights that are reshaping our community, road closures that affected daily life, and accountability stories that made people stop, share, and speak up. The community didn’t just click—people read, returned, commented, and acted.
How we measured 2025 (SiteGround vs. Jetpack)
SiteGround / server-side totals reflect the total scale of traffic handled by the site infrastructure (a “how much traffic hit the server” view). These totals were insane because they can include cached page hits and non-human traffic that still touches the server.
Jetpack’s Year-in-Review is the best “newsroom lens” we have: what content was read the most, how people found us (search, Google News, social), when readers show up, and device habits. Jetpack can read lower than server totals because tracking can be blocked by privacy tools/ad blockers, and because it filters some traffic.
Bottom line: both systems are useful—and together they tell the full story: the Herald has scale and staying power.
The Hillsboro Herald 2025 by the numbers
Server-side (SiteGround monthly totals added up)
- 5,456,415 pageviews in 2025
- 1,236,192 “monthly unique visitors” across the year.
- Average month: ~203,016 unique visitors • ~454,701 pageviews
- Depth of reading: ~4.41 pages per visitor (overall), which is far beyond industry standards.
Jetpack editorial insights
- Posts published: 201 – all unique one-of-a-kind stories.
- Words published: 229.1K (about 1,140 words per post)
- Comments: 1,975 – We are the only local news media outlet that allows comments.
- Most popular day of week: Monday (22% of views)
- Most popular hour: 8:00 AM (6% of views)
- Biggest day: April 20, 2025 — 31.4K views
Monthly traffic snapshot (server totals)
Peak month: October (155,515 uniques • 678,942 pageviews).
Other monster months: April (637,562 pageviews) and August (651,113 pageviews).
How readers found the Herald (Jetpack referrers)
- Search engines: 212,648 views (Google Search 202,029; Bing 6,700; DuckDuckGo 2,357; Yahoo 1,474)
- Android Google Quick Search Box: 96,467
- Facebook: 74,969
- Google News: 51,254
- Nextdoor: 5,377
- Reddit: ~5,485 (out.reddit.com 3,445 + Reddit 2,040)
- LinkedIn: 2,040
What that means: we’re not dependent on a single platform. Search and National syndication with Google News and NEWSMAX helped your stories travel far beyond city limits, while social sharing amplified the moments that mattered most.
Mobile-first reality
Readers primarily found the Herald on phones—especially Android and iPhone—while Chrome and Safari dominated browser traffic. That’s the modern reading habit, and it’s one reason fast headlines, strong visuals, and clean story structure matter more than ever.
Most-read pages and posts (Jetpack “Most Viewed”)
- Latest Breaking News and Updates from Hillsboro Area — 63,722 views
- The Hillsboro, Oregon Gambit — an Intel Story – 38,449 views
- Oregon Well Owners Face New Restrictions — 30,396 views
- 190 Years Of Farming Ends… Data Centers Expand — 27,570 views
- ICE Shows Up In Hillsboro… (Video) — 20,545 views
- River Road Closure (5 months) — 20,526 views
- 10-Acre Battery Facility Proposed Near Homes — 20,217 views
- Army National Guard Breaks Ground — $30M Facility — 19,964 views
- Tan, Tariffs, TSMC to Set Intel’s Future — 14,923 views
- The Slow Death of the Washington County Fair — 14,923 views
190 Years Of Farming Ends As Latest Massive Data Centers And Factories Expand In Hillsboro
Other breakout stories (Top Stories list with links)
- Former Macy’s at Streets of Tanasbourne to Become Latest Hillsboro Apartment Community
- From Fallout to Future: Hillsboro 3.0 — The People’s Era — Needs To Begin Before Intel Falls
- Intel Layoffs Rock Hillsboro: 2,400 Jobs Cut Across Local Campuses
- Hillsboro Closes Major Roads For Private Developers As Industrial Growth Explodes
- Beloved Hillsboro Ice Cream Shop Finally Making A Comeback
- Things Appear Very Dirty At Clean Water Services As Lavish Spending And More Surfaces
- Intel’s $4.46 Billion Disappearing Act — and Why Some Think a Secret Ohio Partnership Is Hiding in Plain Sight — INTC RISING
- Long Before Intel, Ronler Acres And The Land Had A Rich History
- Flexential’s New Hillsboro 6 Data Center Marks a Shift From Jobs to Joules
What 2025 showed us
Look at the themes in the stories readers hit hardest:
- Intel anxiety—and Intel identity: what happens to Hillsboro if the giant stumbles, and what happens if it pivots and survives?
- Land-use pressure: farms and industrial lands are being converted into power-intensive development.
- Energy fights: batteries, data centers, and the “who pays” question.
- Accountability: follow-the-money reporting and demand for transparency.
- Community moments: stories that hit people’s daily lives—roads, local institutions, local businesses, and the things that make Hillsboro feel like home.
This is why your support matters: independent local journalism is how communities defend themselves in the modern era—against bad policy, bad deals, and quiet decisions that become permanent.
Hillsboro Closes Major Roads For Private Developers As Industrial Growth Explodes
Thank you — and how to support the Herald
To every reader, commenter, tipster, and neighbor who shared a story: thank you. You are why the Hillsboro Herald exists.
If you believe this work matters, consider supporting the paper so we can keep reporting, keep filing records requests, keep showing up, and keep telling the stories no one else will.
Support the Hillsboro Herald on Patreon
For Local Advertisers- Our stories are local and read hyper-locally. Greater Hillsboro readers dominated our traffic and we are setting up special ads for your businesses in early January. We will provide you with below-market opportunities to reach our readers and will be doing more stories on Community Organizations and Businesses to shine a big spotlight on all that you are doing. Reach out to us at hillsboroherald@gmail.com if you want those consumer views and to support our work- we have an excellent option for you!
— Dirk Knudsen, Editor, Hillsboro Herald
Dirk thank you for keeping us informed – often on many stories that we might not hear about. Keep up the good work but be sure to take time for your family and yourself! Happy New Year!
Thank you! I hear you!
Great job. Here’s to a better 2026!
Yes indeed!