January 2026’s top-performing newswire stories show what publishers pick up: timely, data-driven content that delivers utility, security, or escape.
January tends to feel like 301 days instead of 31–it’s something about the crash-out from the hustle and bustle of the holidays and return to monotony, combined with dropping temperatures and shorter days.
Plus, for many of us, the month also brings a sense of dread. It’s filled with setting lofty goals and resolutions and the pressure that comes with them, along with the financial stresses of the post-December pinch, setting budgets for the year ahead, and the kickoff of tax season.
But January also embodies the start of something new and, in the spirit of that, I’d like to introduce myself. I’m Jaimie Etkin, a longtime member of the Stacker team, but the new Director of Publisher Partnerships. I’ve spent the past two decades working as a reporter, editor, and content strategist. My primary focus for 2026 is to both expand the Stacker newswire and make it easier for publishers to find the right stories for their audience.
The first step? Sharing what kind of content is clicking.
Below are some of our top-performing stories from January 2026. Of course, the news cycle has been bringing an incredibly overwhelming amount of stress to many of us. So, it’s no wonder that the type of content that resonated with publishers—and readers—either provided an escape from that barrage of bad news, or practical information and solutions for the problems so many folks are facing.
Award shows are a rare TV event: They don’t just unite us in premise (the opportunity to celebrate movies, TV shows, and music that provide us with an escape from our lives and the world around us), but they also bring many of us to the same place at the same time. Or, as this article by Mecca Bingo puts it, awards shows “create moments that capture reaction, commentary, and conversation in real time.”
After conducting a survey on awards-season viewing habits, Mecca Bingo analyzed how people watch awards shows, what they like about them, and why they still draw viewers when so few live events do.
The article has elements that have long been the backbone of a successful story on the Stacker newswire: it’s data-based with captivating infographics; it has a strong peg (the Golden Globes); the timing was right (it was published two days before the event); and it’s about a topic that brings diverse audiences together not just domestically, but around the world. As the article concludes, “In a fragmented media world, the ability to pull people toward the same moment, even in different ways, remains powerful.”
Nothing grips us quite like nostalgia, and this article delivers that with a twist. Here, Houzz worked with five design and construction firms to reimagine iconic spaces from beloved TV shows as modern, artfully curated rooms fit for homes today.
From the classic ‘90s New York living room on “Friends” to the midcentury modern aesthetic of “Mad Men,” the piece provides captivating visuals that allow us to bring the aesthetics we loved on hit TV shows into our own homes. As a longtime editor, I love the art of telling a story through words, but there’s no denying what the images bring to this piece.
This article has a three-part recipe for success: the sentimentality for popular TV shows that have since ended, the interest in home renovation and DIY projects that’s continued since the pandemic boom, and, once again, an escape from whatever January doldrums plague us.
Throughout 2025 and into 2026, the rising cost of child care has been making headlines. The Department of Health and Human Services defines “affordable” child care as less than 7% of a family’s income. By that designation, child care is hardly affordable anywhere in the U.S. According to a report from the advocacy group Child Care Aware, as summarized by The 19th, child care for two kids costs more than a mortgage in 45 states and Washington, D.C.
More and more, parents are considering leaving their careers to avoid incurring the crushing cost of child care. That could be why publishers and readers gravitated toward this SmartAsset piece, which used MIT Living Wage Calculator data to determine where it’s most and least affordable for one parent to stay home and raise a child. They found that the state with the lowest single income threshold to support a three-person family is West Virginia, and the state with the highest is Hawai‘i.
In addition to its data-backed approach and applicability to every state, the timeliness of this article likely contributed to its resonance: Two days prior, the HHS announced a freeze on $2.4 billion in funding for child care and other family assistance programs in five states.
As these three top-performing articles from January demonstrate, some of the most successful content offers readers a respite from the grueling news cycle and the longest month of the year, while others provide a practical solution to a real-life problem.
In our latest white paper, “How Newsrooms Earn Attention in 2026: Lessons from 3,000 Publisher Partners,” we outline how high-performing topics tend to provide at least one of the following: utility, security, or escape. These winners from January 2026 perfectly illustrate those qualities, from the financial guidance of the stay-at-home parent piece to the escapism and nostalgia of the awards season and TV design articles.
On top of all that, you can’t discount the timeliness factor here—the awards season article came just before the season’s kickoff (the Golden Globes), and the piece about income needed for one parent to stay at home was published on the heels of a big news story on child care funding. Giving publishers and readers the content they need when they need it can make all the difference.
Featured Image Credit: Canva // Shutterstock
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