Monday, November 1, 2010

# 1: Top Ranked Stories

It's booze, politics, politicians acting badly, Google and Facebook, the economy, sports and more this morning - i.e. Times of India readers are still hung up on women who men 'can't stand.' But it's interesting to note which stories don't become the number one most read news articles. Despite front page coverage of the terrorist threat from Yemen over the weekend - and considerable airtime on that story - it hasn't made it to number one. Except for one paper, the Telegraph, the terrorist story didn't even make it into the top ten most read news stories. This may be a good thing.


Are NY Times Readers Really Outliers?


Paul Krugman's piece rockets into the number one spot again this morning. Do readers gravitate to his column because they share his view - or are they trying to gain insight into a different perspective? Or a little of both? If it's the former - then they might share a minority view - even by Krugman's own admission.


He writes: More and more voters, both here and in Europe, are convinced that what we need is not more stimulus but more punishment. Governments must tighten their belts; debtors must pay what they owe. 


The irony is that in their determination to punish the undeserving, voters are punishing themselves: by rejecting fiscal stimulus and debt relief, they're perpetuating high unemployment.  They are, in effect, cutting off their own jobs to spite their neighbors.


Each morning we attempt to understand what drives people's curiosity and attention. This segment uses the simple metric of 'most viewed articles' - a feature on the home-pages of many newspapers. We examine newspapers from across the English speaking world.

If you have an answer to the questions - what drives people's attention? And - should we be attending to something else? If so - how? - then please comment below.



Times of India

New York Times

Sydney Morning Herald

The Guardian

The Hill

The Globe and Mail

LA Times

The Irish Independent

The Telegraph

The Washington Post

City Press

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