The top news stories of 2015 ran the gamut from popular to scandalous, to tragic. ​And while we can't control what stories capture the public's attention, ​we ​can ​ look at how readers ​are discovering these stories​.

​This Authority Report​ examines​ search and social traffic for the top stories of 2015 to help publishers better understand how, and where, their news is circulating.

Top stories covered in this report:¶

• Charlie Hebdo
• Bobbi Kristina Brown
• Floyd Mayweather, Jr. vs. Manny Pacquiao
• Rachel Dolezal
• Cecil the Lion
• The Ashley Madison Agency
• Ahmed Mohamed

Traffic Sources Update:¶

• ​In July, Facebook pulled ahead of Google as the top source of referral traffic to Parse.ly’s network.
• See the top referrral sources to the Parse.ly publishing network​ today!​

Download the Authority Report now to see our findings.

Press Coverage:¶

• What drives news traffic, social or search? - siliconrepublic
• Social media drove more referrals than search for 2015’s biggest news stories - VentureBeat
• Facebook top referring site for publishers, followed by Google: Parse.ly - LiveMint
• Social Beat Search In Referrals For The Year’s Top News Stories - MarketingLand
• Social Media Dominated Referrals for Year's Top Stories - MediaPost