Article in Poynter By Rick Edwards, 12/23/24

Headline:  “Opinion | The most-read news stories of 2024? Lots of politics but some surprises, too”

Subhead:  “On one major list, half of the top 10 were from CNN — including several true romance stories about ‘chance encounters’ “

“You would expect that in the feverish year now closing, politics would draw digital readers like no other topic. And you would be right. But audiences also spent a lot of time on engaging narratives, often about murders and violence, but not always.

“That’s the pattern in the 10th edition of Chartbeat’s annual ‘most engaging stories’ list — as measured in story-by-story minutes each is read on its 60,000 publisher client sites. Five of the top 10 stories were about the presidential race. But at the very top of the list was something else entirely: a CNN story on the arrest of the father of a school shooter near Atlanta who provided the gun.”

https://www.poynter.org/commentary/2024/top-news-stories-2024-chartbeat-cnn-new-york/