2021’s biggest stories were covid-19 and America’s presidential transition
The online audiences of 7,000 publishers spent 275m hours reading about the year’s 45 biggest stories
BY ONE MEASURE the covid-19 pandemic is the biggest story of the past 75 years. In 2020 nearly half of articles in The Economist mentioned it, the highest share for a single subject since the second world war. This year news consumers’ attention shifted to a wider array of issues. Yet according to Chartbeat, a firm that measures online readership, covid still held the public’s interest more steadily than any other topic.
This article appeared in the Graphic detail section of the print edition under the headline “If it spreads, it’s read”
From the December 18th 2021 edition
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