We’ve hit a new milestone here at Stacker in the last couple of months: We are now publishing 400 articles per month across our newswire. That means when we analyze the top five stories in this monthly blog post, we’re looking at the top 1.25%—a very elite group.
In May, the articles that earned the most pickups ran the gamut, covering everything from the World Cup to first responders to the future of urban architecture. The stories may be diverse and perhaps even seem disconnected, but they share a fresh approach to topics with universal relevance, making them clear picks for editors looking to serve their wide-ranging audiences.
Read on to see the top five Stacker articles from May and find out what made each piece stand out.
Timeliness has an unbeatable appeal when it comes to catching an editor's attention, and this article from National Firewatch delivers on that front. May kicks off the always-ominous severe weather season, with peak tornado season starting, hurricane season beginning June 1, and springtime ushering in the most wildfires. This piece explores the latter from a practical standpoint, giving a sense of utility that makes it must-read content. Americans have been hearing for years that extreme weather is worsening, and they want to know how to prepare.
The article also has some specific geographic applicability for Stacker’s largely local publisher network: Severe weather concerns may vary by region, but every area faces some risk, making it universally relevant. When you add in a visually appealing infographic, it’s no wonder this piece came out on top in May.
The World Cup is the most-watched sporting event in the world. FIFA estimates that around 5 billion people tune in at some point during the month-long tournament. (For reference, only about 2.5% of that number—125.6 million—watched the 2026 Super Bowl.) The tournament itself may not begin until mid-June, but the appetite for the event has been building, so it’s no shock to see this KAYAK article at the top of the May leaderboard.
But this article was one of six about the World Cup published across the Stacker newswire in May, and it’s the only one among the top 5 for the month, meaning there are a few other reasons why this particular story resonated.
Firstly, there’s its practical approach. For folks actively planning to attend the World Cup this year, KAYAK provides actionable, money-saving advice they can use. Secondly, the company behind the piece has real authority in the travel space, and here, they use their pricing data to add credibility to the article. There is perhaps no recipe for content success like a richly beloved major event, a splash of service journalism, and a zest of expertise. And lastly, there’s the fact that the 2026 World Cup is taking place in 16 cities across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, which means many publishers have opportunities to bring a local angle to this piece.
This HearingLife article may seem to have nothing in common with the aforementioned severe weather and World Cup pieces, but while it doesn’t necessarily have a news peg, it shares the same broad appeal and localization opportunities as those other May winners.
Every community has first responders, making this piece highly relevant for local newsrooms across the continent. When you factor in that those who work in those fields are largely well-respected, there’s also an emotional resonance here that draws editors and readers in. Plus, the angle is both familiar and novel. Who among us hasn’t winced when we heard a siren? Not only is that due to the thought of the emergency occurring, but it’s also because of the volume of the noise itself. Thinking about the health risks that such exposure poses to these sympathetic workers is naturally going to pique interest.
Adult ADHD diagnosis rates have surged in recent years. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 6% of U.S. adults—about 1 in 16—have an ADHD diagnosis currently. On top of that, about 56% of adults with ADHD were diagnosed during adulthood. That’s a pretty sizable engaged audience for an article like this one from Understood.
Even if someone is not in that cohort, there’s a high chance they know someone with ADHD, allowing readers to see themselves or loved ones in this story and giving it strong potential for comments, sharing, and engagement. At Stacker, we’ve seen relatively strong performance from articles focusing on ADHD. They average about 7% higher pickups than other pieces published in our Health section.
Grist is one of the few dozen nonprofit news organizations that Stacker syndicates content from, and this piece from their reporters is one of those stop-you-in-your-tracks headlines. Most of us think of skyscrapers as massive, modern structures made of metal and glass, so, from the jump, this piece challenges assumptions. Grist covers climate change, environmental justice, and sustainable solutions, and whether or not a reader has interest or knowledge in those spaces, the sheer curiosity this headline sparks is enough to lure them in.
But it’s not just novelty and wonderment drawing eyes in this case. There’s also some visual interest, which is always an effective way to pull folks in—they want to know what these wooden skyscrapers would look like. And lastly, there’s the forward-thinking narrative: Any headline that promises to reveal the "future of” something appeals to our intrigue about what lies ahead.
All that work is done by the headline alone, though. Once a reader is looking at the story itself, the piece delivers on the promised visuals and also stands out for its original reporting, with quotes from architects, engineers, and professors that provide further expertise.
The five top-performing articles on Stacker in May showcase themes you’ve read about here before. Stories that have timeliness (e.g., World Cup and severe storm season) and/or wide appeal (weather, first responders, ADHD), and tie in local news applicability (World Cup, weather, first responders) and/or actionable information (World Cup and weather) are consistently going to climb to the top of the ranks.
Novel or surprising angles into those broad topics (like wooden skyscrapers and first responder hearing loss) are always going to stand out, too. And, as every reporter knows, you can’t fake credibility (like KAYAK’s data and Grist’s expert quotes), so expertise is bound to impress editors looking to keep their audience’s trust.
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