Significant labels changes for Ficam D tops 2019 most read league table

The sale of Mitie Pest Control to Rentokil dominated the top ten most read news stories on the Pest website in 2019. Each step in the saga was tracked by Pest and whether it’s because Rentokil’s fortunes are so closely connected to the overall market’s performance or simply because so many have spent time at Rentokil, the company’s every move is carefully watched.
Whilst the fate of Ficam D was the single most read article, it was the sale of Mitie Pest Control to Rentokil that dominated the top ten most read news stories with no less than five of the top ten being on this topic. Each torturous step in the saga was tracked by Pest and whether it’s because Rentokil’s fortunes are so closely connected to the overall market’s performance, or simply because so many have spent time at Rentokil, the company’s every move is alwatys carefully watched.

Interstingly, the initial announcement of the sale in October 2018 not only topped the most read list in 2018 but also came in at number 3 in the 2019 list. We suspect this is people catching up on what had happenned and how we’d got to where we were in 2019!

As editors we were delighted to see that the majority of web stories making the top 20 were those where we had researched the topics and/or added our interpretation to breaking news, rather than simply reproducing press releases from the companies concerned.

Looking back over the eleven years that Pest has published online, it is interesting to note that the top topics today are generally of a more serious nature – whilst this is partly because the more frivolous items now find a home on social media it is also, we believe, a reflection of the professionalisation of our industry over that period.

Here’s the full top 20 list so if you missed any of these, now’s your chance to catch up!