New York Times article helps attract record numbers to Zoo New York’s Boo at the Zoo | Top Stories

WATERTOWN — The zoo at Thompson Park has never had a weekend quite like this.

Kenneth A. Mix, chair of the board of Zoo New York and former Watertown city manager, said happily Monday that an attendance boom followed the publishing of a New York Times story on the zoo.

The New York Times on Friday posted an in-depth look at Zoo New York, called, “At a fading ‘Island of Misfit Toys,’ zoo animals face a grim fate.” The story covers the zoo’s century-old history, its mix of animals from the state and its uncertain future.

Since the article was posted, 1,706 people attended the annual Boo at the Zoo Halloween event and 218 signed up for new memberships — many people from across the country who read the article — over the weekend.

“We’re thrilled,” interim director Mark Irwin said. “It’s uplifting.”

The 1,706 people who went through the zoo’s doors on Saturday and Sunday broke the record from last year after the zoo reopened when the community came forward to save it from closure in 2023.

The zoo has never before accumulated 200 new members during a weekend, Irwin said. Donations came from as far as California and Cameroon. The zoo also got a flood of orders from its online store.

Irwin still needs to put together final tallies, but he thinks that this weekend’s exposure generated about $20,000 in new revenues with another weekend of Boo at the Zoo to come.

Mix thinks that the article reached a broader audience of people who became interested in the zoo’s animals and future.

“It’s been an incredible response,” Mix said.

The Thompson Park Conservancy board runs the zoo, while the city owns the buildings and grounds. In 2023, the zoo nearly closed permanently because of its financial troubles.

Zoo officials knew that The New York Times was going publish a story about Zoo New York, but had no inkling it was going to drop online Friday morning. It is scheduled to be in the newspaper on Oct. 26, according to the paper’s website.

Last spring, reporter Chistopher Maag spent a few days in Watertown to talk to people about the zoo. He went to a City Council meeting when council members were debating whether to appropriate $100,000 to the facility. About 20 zoo supporters also attended the May meeting to urge the city to fund the zoo.

Over the summer, Maag also did more reporting from New York City, said Mix, who talked to him on the phone for an hour.

“He talked to a lot of people,” Mix said.

Zoo officials didn’t know what to expect from the article. They wondered about the angle of the story and whether the reporter would only focus on Zoo New York or other financially struggling small zoos.

They couldn’t have been more pleased.

Over the weekend, Mix ran into many festival-goers at Boo at the Zoo who mentioned to him that they read the story.

Irwin described the weekend’s event as a team effort, with staff, conservancy board members and sponsors working together. He wanted to thank them for making Boo at the Zoo such a success.

He’s already looking to the second weekend of Boo at the Zoo, hoping that the weather cooperates like it did during the first when temperatures reached the 70s.

The event will be held again from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Admission for this event is regular zoo admission, plus $5 per trick-or-treater. Zoo members need only to pay the trick-or-treating cost. Tickets can be purchased at the front desk upon entrance.