Content curator News360 ran the numbers to track the news-making women of 2012—from celebrities to politicians, what ladies dominated the news cycle this year?
“We collect news stories all year long from more than 40,000 sources,” says News360 chief executive Roman Karachinsky. “Between the start of 2012 today that’s more than 50 million pieces of news to measure from.” To determine the most talked about women the company drilled into the news to find the women whose names appeared the most frequently—but only counted headline hits.
No. 1 Hillary Clinton: 26,838 headlines
The former Presidential candidate has faced a formidable past 12 months: She’s navigated treacherous territory when WikiLeaks released sensitive diplomatic cables in November, urged Syrian President Bashar Assad to hand over his power and leave his country warned North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to chart a different course than his militant father and took heat for the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi. And she went viral: the tumblr blog “Texts From Hillary” became a popular meme in April. Clinton has steadfastly said that she plans to move out of public life at the end of the year, but supporters are breathless over the possibility of a 2016 Presidential bid—and rumors have swirled of another potential office for the former first lady: Mayor of New York City.
No. 2 Michelle Obama: 24,451 headlines
More popular than her husband in this important election year, Michelle Obama’s positive approval ratings register at 66% while POTUS’s first-term average hovered just below 50%. The First Lady keeps a high profile with her mission to end childhood obesity, her commitment to military families and her stylish fashion picks. This year the Harvard Law School grad led the U.S. Olympic delegation in July’s opening ceremony in London, penned a coffee table book, “American Grown,” about growing veggies and tomatoes on the South Lawn of the White House and waged a war on sugary fruit juices as a part of her Let’s Move! initiative. She made more public appearances this year than usual–not surprisingly the campaign used the Mrs. as a tool to widen the gender gap over Romney–appearing as a judge on an episode of Bravo’s Top Chef, chatting with the ladies of The View and joking with funny guys Jimmy Fallon and Jon Stewart.
Read the full list at ForbesWomen.com
