From the Onion: Most e-mailed list tearing NYT newsroom apart:
Nagourney, currently stuck covering Barak Obama’s presidential campaign in Minnesota, said he’s been trying to make his stories more e-mail-friendly. But so far, success has eluded him.
“I thought my Elizabeth Edwards breast cancer article the other week had a great chance, as it was at the intersection of politics, health, death, and family—and had the word ‘breast’ in the headline—but it didn’t even make the top 10,” Nagourney said. “Whatever.”
I’ve seen first hand how much consternation the most-viewed and most e-mailed lists can cause among newsroom staffers. “What do you mean, my 40-inch think piece on the new county budget only had 10 page views?”
(via Romenesko)
True… and too funny!
I’d guess the most-emailed stories are likely to be the less important and less widely read news of the day. You’re not likely to e-mail to your friend a story that everybody is already reading. You’ll e-mail a story that you’ve found, that you think they might miss otherwise.