The Top Ten Editors Articles of 2024

A look back at our biggest hits of the year that was

An anti-Israel protest at Harvard Law School in October 2023. The U.S. government said, without casting any aspersion on any individual protester including those pictured here, that “In recent weeks, Iranian government actors have sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza.”

More than 240 issues of The Editors have been published since we launched in March of 2024. The end of the calendar year is a good moment to check back on which of those pieces have been most popular with readers.

If there are common themes among these top ten articles and a few others that came close to making the list, they relate to the war in the Middle East and how it has played out on university campuses in America and in the U.K. Also attracting substantial reader interest are articles about organized religion in America and about educational standards and quality more broadly. The articles are a mix of those explaining recent developments and predicting, previewing, or speculating about future ones.

Even though it was a presidential election year, only one of these most popular pieces dealt with the presidential campaign. Sometimes the biggest impact can be had on stories that fewer other people and publications are covering. For a publication like this one, Willie Keeler’s advice about batting applies: “hit ‘em where they ain’t.” This is so even though we nailed the presidential campaign pretty well (See “The Editors Told You So,” November 6, 2024.)

The most successful articles are scoops, those that surprise readers by being the first to deliver new information or analysis that is not readily available elsewhere. “Information is surprise,” as George Gilder says.

May the year ahead be full of surprises on the upside.

What follows is a list of the articles we published in 2024 that got the most attention from readers, with the most popular article listed first, the second most popular second, and so forth. Unless another author is listed, the articles are by me. Two of the pieces are by other writers, David Wurmser and Michael Mosbacher. They deserve congratulations and thanks for contributions that resonated with readers.

1. Iran Paid Anti-Israel Protesters in America, U.S. Government Says

2. Who Will Be the Washington Post’s Next Owner?

3. What Communist China’s Engineers Were Doing in Hamas’s Gaza Tunnels

4. Grade Inflation Sends AP Test Scores Soaring (This one was republished also with permission in Harvard’s Education Next, where it was that publication’s most popular blog post of 2024.)

5. Church Attendance Slump Caused Mental Health Crisis, Harvard Professor Suggests

6. Prepare for Disintegration of Syria and Rise of Imperial Turkey, by David Wurmser

7. Vice President J.D. Vance Could Spark a Religious Revival

8. Chicago Wants a “Public Option” for Grocery Stores

9. Harvard Bond Offering Raises Less Money than Expected

10. The Oxford Union Disgraces Itself, and Oxford University, by Michael Mosbacher

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