Reading Habits

The Washington Post
   Back in the last century, those who published newspapers didn't know if we read them, or simply used them to swat flies on hot summer days. Now we are typically being observed when we are reading them on our computers. The graphic above provides a snapshot I received from The Washington Post indicating my tally for the year.
   I received an earlier one and told you about it in a long post which also includes considerable information about The Washington Post. I had difficulty finding it, but finally did so under the heading: Newsprint. That post and this one are primarily for me since I don't keep a record of the things I do, like reading newspapers. My first post about this will be more interesting since in this one I will simply summarize some of the other points beyond the ones in the illustration. 
  I read almost the same number of stories, but 21 fewer this year. I don't know if one has to read the complete article to have it counted. This past year the pieces were authored by 537 writers, whereas the earlier email indicated I read articles by 719 different authors. Once again, the author who appeared to be my most popular one, has a name I did not recognize and it appears that the "Opinion" section was the one I visited most often. I also read a lot of articles about the "D.C. Area", which makes sense since I spent a lot of time in that area and grew up in Maryland. That I read quite a few about "Israel and Palestinian Territories" came as a complete surprise as did the observation that I looked at lots of "Sports" stories.
  The summary provided by The Washington Post was a flattering one, which probably relates more to marketing than it does to statistics. I assume that the other papers I read, know exactly what I have read, but they don't share those data with me. They apparently do, however, with various companies who do send me emails relating to things about which I have taken the briefest of peeks.