Most Viewed Articles at NYTimes.com for 2012

Danielle Rhoades Ha, Director of Communications for the New York Times, released the top 10 most visited articles and blog posts on NYTimes.com in 2012.

The tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. and the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Sandy, it should come as little surprise, ranked high on the Times' list.

Executive director Greg Smith explaining his resignation from Goldman Sachs in an OP-ED piece was the second most viewed story at NYTimes.com

And, of course, the presidential election swung a great many readers to the Times' website in order to absorb the latest analysis and better understand why the electorate extended another four years to President Obama.

Readers to the Times' website, however, had more than disasters and politics on their minds: features on Yoga (detrimental to your health?), an engaging restaurant review by Pete Wells and author Tim Kreider's compelling essay on how our anxious and frenzied busy days are really just a hedge against emptiness, also cracked the top 10.

Here, then, are the top 10 stories read on NYTimes.com for 2012:

1.) 12/14: Nation Reels After Gunman Massacres 20 Children at School in Connecticut By JAMES : ``Hundreds of terrified parents arrived as their sobbing children were led out of the Sandy Hook Elementary School in a wooded corner of Newtown, Conn.''

2.) - 3/14: OP-ED: Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs By GREG SMITH, Goldman Sachs executive director and head of the firm's United States equity derivatives business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
``To put the problem in the simplest terms, the interests of the client continue to be sidelined in the way the firm operates and thinks about making money''

3.) 10/29: Storm Barrels Through Region, Leaving Destructive Path By JAMES BARRON: ``The mammoth and merciless storm made landfall near Atlantic City around 8 p.m., with maximum sustained winds of about 80 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said.''

4.) 11/13: As Not Seen on TV Restaurant Review: Guy's American Kitchen & Bar in Times Square By PETE WELLS
``Did panic grip your soul as you stared into the whirling hypno wheel of the menu, where adjectives and nouns spin in a crazy vortex? ''

5.) 11/6: Special Coverage: The 2012 Presidential Election By NATE SILVER
``President Obama has been elected to another term in the White House..''

6.) 6/30: Anxiety: The 'Busy' Trap By TIM KREIDER, author of "We Learn Nothing," a collection of essays and cartoons

7.) 11/6: Divided U.S. Gives Obama More Time By JEFF ZELENY and JIM RUTENBERG: ``In defeating Mitt Romney, the president carried Colorado, Iowa, Ohio, New Hampshire, Virginia and Wisconsin, a near sweep of the battleground states, and was holding a narrow advantage in Florida.''

8.) 1/5 How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body FROM THE MAGAZINE By WILLIAM J. BROAD: ``At Sankalpah Yoga, the room was packed; roughly half the students were said to be teachers themselves. Black walked around the room, joking and talking. "Is this yoga?" he asked as we sweated through a pose that seemed to demand superhuman endurance. "It is if you're paying attention."

9.) 1/21 THE iECONOMY Part 1: An Empire Built Abroad.
How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work
By CHARLES DUHIGG and KEITH BRADSHER
``But as Steven P. Jobs of Apple spoke, President Obama interrupted with an inquiry of his own: what would it take to make iPhones in the United States? Not long ago, Apple boasted that its products were made in America. Today, few are.''

10.) 1/6 The 45 Places to Go in 2012 ``It's been 12 years since Panama regained control of its canal, and the country's economy is booming. Cranes stalk the skyline of the capital, Panama City, where high-rises sprout one after the next and immigrants arrive daily from around the world.''

-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com
January 23, 2013

This article was cross-posted from Newspaperalum.com