[alizaki]

I think news sites think of Most Popular, Most Emailed, etc as ways to generate more pageviews, which is basically revenue. They're not based off any personal relevance to the user. Which is why in the authors model of things, they can be disposed of.

[petercooper]

But without the ads and other true "noise" on the page, highlighting stories isn't a revenue maker and, instead, provides the reader with a useful service. BBC News has no ads (since I'm in the UK) and still uses a lot of content highlights, 'popular' and similar boxes - they're very useful from a reader's POV.

[riffer]

Perhaps that's a good starting point for business class