We never cared for TimesSelect, but now that it’s gone we do miss our email previews of the Sunday paper. Because of this technicality, we have to discontinue our Tomorrow’s Most Emailed List Today feature. Besides, with the columnists back, the list has become just a bunch of white guys ranting about the Bush administration anyway.
What defines success? We ask ourselves this every day, but mostly in relation to our predictions on the Times most emailed list.
Last week we failed to place two articles. We were wrong about the Duke piece—turns out the Canon War is more interesting than rape accusations—and about the Amazon travel piece. But we hit the jack pot, or at least came close, in the magazine. Do We Really Know What Makes Us Healthy made it to number two, and is still on the list.
Despite the loses, placing an article in the top two counts as a winning week in our book.
This week offers no sure things. The secondary Magazine piece, How Do You Say “Got Milk” En Español?, has a lot of potential. Stories about advertising and Latin Markets usually do well, but with Times Select over, people might go crazy emailing each other about Maureen Dowd’s sex life. Three to one, this article makes the top five.
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Last week, we came out okay. As predicted, the San Francisco wine bar piece performed well, breaking the top five and staying in the top ten until Monday. The Book Review section as a whole did badly. No Thanks, Mr. Nabokov never cracked the top ten, but it did make the extended list and was the most emailed Book Review article. To be honest, we really bottomed out with Conscience of a Conservative. Despite its early success, the piece wasn’t even the most emailed magazine story and never made it to the top ten.
But it’s a new week, and there are new bets to be made.
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Last week, we took a beating. They Eat What We Are did well, but never made it to number one. Thirty-Six Hours in Seville performed better than we had expected and Democratic Vistas did as well as we had thought. Overall, we came out under.
The Times helped us out by putting Conscience of a Conservative online earlier this week. The article shot to the top five. Unless there’s a Sunday Styles piece about people wearing white after Labor Day that gains traction, two to one, this piece will reach number one.
There are always good odds that the 36 Hours feature will do well, but this week there’s a Journeys piece on wine bars in San Fransisco. Let's do some New York Times most emailed list math: San Francisco + Wine + Travel Section = a most emailed article. Two to one, this article will reach the top five.
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• They Eat What We Are
Confusing headline aside, this magazine feature about pet food has all the makings of a most emailed list. It’s light news, with potential social relevance and a targeted demographic. Plus, pet owners are crazy and they love emailing articles to each other. Remember that article on Labradoodles? Two to one, this article will hit number 1.
• 36 Hours in Seville
“36 Hours In” is often in the top ten because so many people know at least one person who visited the featured city, so they send this article off to remind them about all the things they missed while they were there. Plus, Seville has become a popular study abroad location and Spain is hot right now. Three to one, this will peak at 5.
• Democratic Vistas
The review of Matt Bai’s new book, The Argument, will get traction, and emails, from democrats. Unfortunately for Bai, any wonk worth his hat only emails articles from obscure news sources. Five to one, this article will reach 15.
