Chartbeat released its annual measure last week of the “most engaging” digital stories of the year, defined by time spent reading on the sites of its 60,000 clients. At the top of the list was the Los Angeles Times report of “Friends” star Matthew Perry’s death.
It was the second time in the nine years that Chartbeat has compiled such a list that a news story combined with an obituary led the 100 ranked items. Brian Stelter’s CNN story on Anthony Bourdain’s suicide was the best read in 2018.
I asked for a comment from the Times, and B.J. Terhune, assistant managing editor for news, emailed, “Staff Writer Richard Winton and Deputy Editor Matt Brennan are the reason the L.A. Times story was not only the first published among traditional news outlets but also the most-read. … Richard’s extensive sourcing allowed us to confirm Perry’s death long before any official statements were issued. And Matt’s exclusive one-on-one with Perry at the L.A. Times Festival of Books earlier this year provided depth and context.
“We also sent Staff Writer Connor Sheets to Perry’s home that night, where he was able to provide news from the scene, including interviews with neighbors, giving the story even more scope.”
The Times had the second-ranked Chartbeat story as well — an account of the identifying of a 72-year-old shooter in the mass killing in a Monterey Park dance studio. (The suspect killed himself.)
Rounding out the top 5 were two feature stories that hit the right buttons for social media and another that millions of sports fans saw live on “Monday Night Football”:
- “She broke up with her boyfriend and moved in with a man she’d known for 3 weeks. Here’s what happened next.” (Francesca Street, CNN)
- “Handyman turns the tables on squatters who took over his mother’s house” (Hannah Ray Lambert, Fox News)
- “Damar Hamlin in critical condition after suffering cardiac arrest; Bills-Bengals postponed” (Alaina Getzenberg, ESPN)
In a brief accompanying commentary in graphic form, Chartbeat identified popular categories of news this year as well as individual stories. Memorials, catastrophes and features on human connections all scored high but two more topics were of particular interest — war and true crime.
With two major wars in 2023, that category was well-represented. The two highest ranked, however, were not straight news stories but explainers by the BBC — “What is Hamas and why is it fighting with Israel in Gaza?” (sixth-ranked) and “Israel Gaza war: History of the conflict explained” (14th).
True crime has long been a popular genre, even more so given the topic’s prominence in TV documentaries and podcasts.
The most popular running story on social media, particularly on video, was the search for the missing Titan submarine exploring the Titanic wreck. Chartbeat said the Titan story had more views than a full year of presidency coverage.
The Chartbeat rankings list requires two qualifiers. Though the representation of news sources is broad, many prominent outlets are not Chartbeat clients. Also as hard paywalls have become more common, stories on those sites will get fewer visits than on those that are free. The Atlantic, whose site used to be free, had three first-ranking stories in the first years — but no longer.
Chartbeat, used internally at news outlets for real-time data on how stories are performing, has emphasized time spent reading as a truer measure of engagement success than unique visits or pageviews (though those remain favored by advertisers).
The metrics firm is not the only player in this space. The New Yorker publishes its own annual list of 25 best-read stories. Following the true crime theme, topping the magazine’s list this year was James Lasdun’s “The Corrupt World Behind the Murdaugh Murders.”
In an essay, newyorker.com editor Michael Luo noted that the most-read group had notable omissions. “No war in Gaza. No Trump. No politics.” All are staples of the magazine’s long pieces. Luo theorized that the New Yorker audience may have been experiencing news fatigue with heavy topics, a phenomenon more often associated with nonconsumers of news.
In past years, The New Yorker list had been based on whether reading the digital stories led to subscription orders. Both are important, Luo emailed me, “To be honest, we just liked the editorial mix in the engaged minutes list. It helpfully illustrated the news fatigue trend.”
A growing list of publications — Pocket, New York Magazine and others — have made end-of-the-year lists of their own. The lists double as an enjoyable read and as a promotion of the publication’s best work.
The Washington Post offers an ingenious variation. For a second year, it has produced Newsprint (as in fingerprint), a tailored graphic story that tells you, the subscriber, what you read most during the year. Newsletter promotions are woven in.
In my case, I read 1,348 Post stories. Favorite topics: lifestyle, arts, opinion, politics. Favorite author (a semi-guilty pleasure): advice columnist Carolyn Hax. She’s good, and she’s prolific.
I write about these lists every year for at least two reasons. The winning stories are typically great reads I missed, and, like the Pulitzer Prizes, they provide lessons in thorough reporting as well as writing craft.
I hope that more newspapers, magazines and digital-only sites will follow the examples. They have data building blocks, used for business purposes, sitting in their computers. Why not be transparent and share the information on what’s being read with readers?
