With Eid al-Adha behind us and summer ready to make way for fall, we have on our hands last month's most read articles list.
August 2017 had a larger than usual pool of article for us to draw from as the number of entries increased from the usual 40 to 50. Though Reader's Corner was not published last week, its entries were recorded regardless and will affect the rankings.
Once more, foreign politics remained a prominent readers' choice. Turkey's relations with the European Union and the recent violence in Myanmar played a key role here. But, "Life" was August's rising star with a record number of entries in the ranking.
First place had no surprises with "Politics" safeguarding its position with 15 news articles. However, the difference between the first and second was much closer than usual.
Among the 15 entries in politics, only two were without a subcategory. "Diplomacy" with nine entries took the lead in August, followed by "War on Terror" with four items to its name.
It appears "World" news is here to stay as it continued to be in second place after managing to jump two places in the rankings last month. It had 12 news articles to its name, and all of them had a subcategory.
Among them, "Europe" led with five entries and was followed by "Asia Pacific" and "Mideast" with two entries apiece. The remaining two news articles were evenly distributed between "Americas" and "Islamophobia," a rare appearance on the list.
Third place was shared between two categories, "Life" and "Turkey."
Considering "Life" was placed fifth the previous two months, it saw a substantial increase both in terms of the number of entries and ranking in August with seven news articles. While two of them were without a subcategory, five belonged to the "History" subcategory, a popular choice among readers.
Similar to "Life," national news had seven articles, but only one with a subcategory, which was filed under "Investigations," another rare appearance. The other six were only listed under "Turkey."
"Columns" saw a positive change in ranking as it reached fourth place from sixth the month before. Its number of entries similarly increased with four articles, two of which belonged to Yahya Bostan, while the remaining ones were by İbrahim Kalın and Hakkı Öcal. Congratulations to all three of them.
Fourth place on the list was also shared by "Business" thanks to four entries. Despite its number of entries decreasing by one, "Business" managed to hold on to its position last month. Two of its news articles belonged to the "Defense" subcategory, while "Economy" had one to its name. The last one did not have a subcategory.
In at five, we have "Sports" with its solitary entry in the Top 10 list for August. It was filed under the "Football" subcategory, a popular choice.
This month's biggest change was "Life" thanks to a steep increase in the number of articles. Congratulations to both print and web editors for their success.
Its subcategory has also shown that when it comes to "History," the daily has a dedicated reader base that has followed it actively over the months.
Apart from "World," August saw a decrease in the diversity of both subcategories and main categories as the entries were more focused.