The Viking Times has been Winthrop’s “Stories by the Seaside” since 2019.  If you do the math, that means that our newspaper turns five this year!  Happy birthday, The Viking Times!  Over the past few days, I’ve taken data from our website, interviewed staff, and asked our very own writers what their favorite articles were over the years.  I’ve included hyperlinks to each article mentioned; please do not hesitate to check out the articles or our staff profiles!

First up, we have our top three articles from our site data.  SNO, the platform we use for our newspaper, provides analytics for The Viking Times‘s readership.  Coming in at our most read story is Chelsea Long’s “8 Reasons I Will Not Betray My Hydro Flask for a Stanley Cup” at over 2,200 views!  Chelsea explains to our readers that she is, and always will be, a devoted Hydro Flask user and never one for a Stanley Cup.   She gives convincing and sensible reasons why a Hydro Flask is better (even including customer reviews from the water bottle company’s website!), making me realize that a Hydro Flask is better than a Stanley.

Our second most-read article is Chris Raney’s “A List of Cereal Mascots in Order of How Well I can Take them in a Fight.”  This comical article is exactly as the title sounds: your well-known cereal mascots and characters ranked in a fight with Chris Raney.  He writes how Honey Nut Cheerios’ Buzz the Honeybee would be an “uncontested win.”   At the bottom of Chris’ list is Lucky Charms’ Lucky the Leprechaun.  Right off the bat, he says that he would lose against the leprechaun, stating, “Now, I hate to say that I’d lose in a fight to a man who’s less than 4 feet tall, but this guy is literally magical.”  Chris even suggests that the different types of marshmallows in the cereal can give Lucky superpowers, adding an additional element of fun.  If you want a story that’ll make you laugh, this one is the one for you.

Finally, at number three is Elaina Freeman’s “Breaking Down The Easter Eggs of the Wicked Trailer” with over 950 views!  As a fellow Wicked fan, I “couldn’t be happier” with this article, following the release of the Wicked trailer.  Elaina starts with an explanation of how she fell in love with the defying musical.  After giving her readers a spoiler warning, Elaina dives right into the secret meanings behind five Easter Eggs shown in the trailer; the first one being the iconic line of Glinda’s, “Are people born wicked or do they have wickedness thrust upon them?”  Each Easter Egg is given an in-depth analysis of its meaning, giving Wicked fans the analysis they love.

It’s safe to say that a lot of The Viking Times‘s readership comes from within the school.  I thought it would be best to catch up with some staff members to see what their thoughts are on their favorite articles and genres.  First, I interviewed our very own advisor, Mr. Donnelly.  When asked about his favorite genre, he mentioned the reviews of music, saying, “I really like looking at reviews of music, albums, stuff like that because I’m always curious as far as what students of the current music landscape, past music landscapes.”  He later added that he enjoys reading the senior pieces.  The Viking Times encourages their senior writers to write a piece reflecting on their four years at Winthrop High School and their career at The Viking Times.  Mr. Donnelly mentioned Analise Bruno’s senior piece, “These are Just Words.”  I went to Mrs. Dame (formally Ms. McKinnon) next.  She said that she likes reading opinion pieces before mentioning Ariana Bruno’s “Red (Taylor’s Version) Album Review” and said that she “really [enjoyed] it.”  Mrs. Dame then mentioned Zaineb Fawzi’s “Bridgerton Season 3: An In-Depth Review.”  Ms. Santangelo also enjoys reading the opinion pieces because it helps the school staff understand writers’ opinions. 

Drifting away from opinions, Mr. Walton prefers the personal stories of students and plans for their future.  He says that the personal stories give him “insight into how to teach them, what they want to learn about.”  Finally, I went downstairs to the first floor.  “I like current events,”  said Mr. Capasso when I asked him.  After Mrs. Summa mentioned Zaineb’s interview with Mrs. Summa from behind him, she and Mr. Capasso agreed that they liked the staff interviews.  And of course, what would The Viking Times‘s readership be without Mrs. Summa??  Not only is she one of our top readers, but she also leaves us feel-good comments on nearly every single article.  It was only right to interview her and get her opinion on our newspaper.  When asked, Mrs. Summa said with a smile, “I like the true stories, I like the Winthrop High School Drama.  That’s what I really enjoy.”  And Mrs. Summa – I will keep your recommendation in mind ;).  

Lastly, I got our own writer’s opinions.  I sent out a Google Form to our staff asking what their favorite articles to read and write were.  From Elania Freeman, she enjoyed writing was ““Can’t You Just Calm Down?”  A Deep Dive Into Anxiety.”  The article is very personal to her, she is “extremely proud” of it.  She “wrote it with the intention of having people know they are not alone and that their struggles are only a piece of them, not the whole picture.”  When she reads our articles, Elaina enjoys our opinion pieces.  Joe Disney’s favorite article to read was Elania’s article about the all-too-familiar anxiety in high school.  His favorite piece that he wrote was “What is the Best Single Use Water Bottle Brand?” because he was able to get a feel for what brands of water bottles people like to use.  Stella Pelletier enjoys reading and writing about current issues, particularly diving deeper into the details.  She thinks “it’s important to explore all perspectives of a story and write about how something makes you feel.”  Lily Jarbeau enjoys reading film reviews, being a movie-lover, and so she can get recommendations and hear other people’s opinions.  Her favorite articles to write include recipes (I’ve included a link for one that she’s written) because she enjoys cooking or baking before the writing process.  Alesja Merama, being a book-lover, enjoys reading and writing book reviews.  As for me, I’ll read anything, but I enjoy reading reviews like Zaineb’s Bridgerton review, opinion pieces like Elania’s “Halfway There,” current events like Mackenzie Lynch’s “Trouble in The Red Sea.” and Joe’s articles on the NFL, and Lily’s reviews of movies, particularly “It Couldn’t Get Much Worse Than This: Argylle.”  When it comes to writing, I enjoy writing about current events, politics or entertainment, because they are articles I know I would like to see on news sites that I follow.

As we celebrate this milestone, the staff at The Viking Times will be making a couple of changes, but nothing drastic!  We will be creating a new Instagram page!  Every Friday, we will advertise our articles and provide links and hopefully, you’ll get to know our staff better in some of our posts.  Be on the lookout for updates as we will try and find more ways to expand the newspaper’s outreach.  We will be organizing fundraisers for merchandise.  And, if there is enough, there may be some raffle winners!

As our readers, what are some of your favorite articles?  Welcome back to The Viking Times and thank you for reading.