Today, dear reader, is my final day at Philadelphia magazine. To commemorate this blessed occasion, here’s a look back at the five most popular stories this blog has generated, for better or for worse.

Not surprisingly, it’s a list dominated by sports and attractive females. Some forward-thinking online entrepreneur should really create a site that features both of these things. I’m sure it would succeed.

“And Now for Some Potentially Bad News in Philadelphia Sports”: 10/03/07

This was the infamous “Andy Reid will quit” rumor we reported, which our source, ultimately, had wrong. But even though this rumor had been posted elsewhere on the web, my story, for whatever reason, became the scapegoat for “irresponsible blogging” and clearly annoyed most of the Eagles beat writers, who had been looking forward to a peaceful bye week. The day after, Reid held a press conference responding to the rumors and introducing to the world the phrase “blog-efficient.”

 
“Jocelyn Kirsch Naked Photos Are Inevitable”: 12/05/07

Here’s an easy recipe for a successful post: Use the name of a woman garnering national attention for her role in an alleged high-profile identity theft scam (Jocelyn Kirsch) and couple it with a sexually suggestive headline (naked photos).

 
“Jocelyn Kirsch’s Bomb Show Came Courtesy of Dad“: 12/06/07

Ibid.

 
“Alycia Lane’s Mugshot May Be More Difficult to Obtain Than Her Bikini Photos“: 12/17/07

Alycia Lane had already gained national celebrity in 2007 thanks to her messy involvement in a bikini-photo e-mail controversy with NFL network anchor Rich Eisen. That was a tiny little speck compared to the incident that happened in New York City that would ultimately cost her her job (for now). Nobody expected such a rapid fall from grace in such an un-ladylike fashion. Even though the case was, for the most part, thrown out, the damage to Lane’s reputation couldn’t be undone. And yet her internet popularity skyrocketed.

 
“Fox 29 to Offer Vamped-Up Political Coverage“: 3/11/08

It seemed impossible that anyone would top Jocelyn Kirsch’s popularity on this blog. But that was until the day we featured an otherwise uneventful press release trumpeting Fox 29 anchor Kerri-Lee Halkett (with, of course, an accompanying attractive head shot). The post was picked up by Fark.com, whose thousands of curious oglers traveled over to our site to get a look. Too many, actually, as the resulting traffic swarm completely knocked out our server for a couple of hours. Once we got it running again, this Kerri-Lee Halkett post went on to become the most heavily trafficked story ever to appear on the Daily Examiner. Congratulations, Kerri-Lee: You have a face that can satisfy thousands of anonymous masturbators worldwide.

Thank yous to those outside Philly Mag who helped along the way (in no particular order):

Joey Sweeney, Dan McQuade, Michael Klein, “The Mighty” Dan Gross, Les Bowen, Bob Ford, Bill Conlin, Daniel Rubin, Valerie Levesque, Stephen A. Smith, Sal Paolantonio, Larry Kane, Brian Hickey, Dave Magrogan, John DeBella, Jonathan Valania, Enrico Campitelli Jr., Matt P., Michael Millici, Paul Flannery, John Gonzalez, Joe Student, Ben Finley, Tony Bruno, Angelo Cataldi, Chamomiles Davis, Clare Perretta, Rhea Hughes, Jessica Moss, J.J. Balaban, Rob Guarino, Bill Marimow, Pat McCloone, Josh Cornfield, Brian X. McCrone, Daniel Hunter, Michael Preston, Zach Hill, Rich Hofmann, Derek Boyko, Philly Chit Chat, Mike Mamula, Larry Shenk, Mitch Williams, Michael Nutter, John Baer, Brian Startare, Will Bunch, Justin Wineburgh, Joe Fox, Stu Bykofsky, Shane Victorino, Ike Richman, and Reuben Frank.

This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Endings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted by A.J. Daulerio on 3/28/08 in Endings