https://www.pressherald.com/interactive/best-2015

What you read in 2015

We totaled up the amount of time our readers spent online with our stories in 2015, and we’ve presented them below in that order. What did we find? That you spent a lot of time with a mix of investigative projects, features, politics and breaking news. At the top of the list, you collectively spent 75,604 minutes – or more than 52 days – reading the year’s top story, about the dispute over the Center Lovell Inn essay contest. (Full disclosure: We borrowed this idea from the New York Times.)

1. Maine inn again offered for a pittance, and up to 200 perfect words

2. Freedom of speech, backlash of anger over four words at South Portland High School

3. Police hunt for suspects in Old Port shootings

4. Owner of Portland diner defends yelling at screaming child

5. Suspect charged with murder in stabbing death inside Saco supermarket

6. Maine officers salute police dog in emotional farewell

7. Suspect in Saco supermarket stabbing had planned random attack, police say

8. Road where Bonny Eagle student was killed notorious for speeding

9. Ugly incident in Old Port leads to burst of online debate about race in Maine

10. Blizzard leaves Mainers buried, with more storms on the way

11. Food blogger told he’s had his last meal at 3 Portland restaurants

12. Rains, flooding deliver super-soaker to remember in Maine

13. King to LePage: ‘Man up and apologize’

14. Remains of missing Appalachian Trail hiker found, Maine Warden Service says

15. Greater Portland recovery advocate dies of drug overdose

16. Driver in Casco crash that killed 4-year-old boy has never had a license, authorities say

17. Though danger signs were everywhere, boy’s life was still lost

18. Big changes are occurring in one of the fastest-warming spots on Earth

19. Buxton crash survivor says girl who died wasn’t driving

20. Bill Nemitz: No longer symptom-free, I embark on my battle with cancer

21. Payday at the mill

22. Man who broke Appalachian Trail record also broke rules, says Baxter State Park

23. Fatal hit-and-run accident in York: Roadside walk, then ‘just gone’

24. Marcy’s Diner owner, parent of fussy child continue online feud

25. Sleek, futuristic warship built at BIW is cheered as it heads to sea

26. Maine snowfall amounts: SnowTrac Jan. 26-27

27. Leon Gorman, visionary who made L.L. Bean a household name, dies at 80

28. ‘Everything was just crashing and crashing and crashing’ as 75-car pileup injures 17 on Maine interstate

29. Booting of cars in parking company’s lots kicks up a storm in Portland

30. Maine’s highest court: LePage’s vetoes came too late, so 65 laws stand

31. Deaths of retired couple, son rattle Boothbay Harbor

32. Falmouth family suffers heroin’s tragic toll

33. Maine woman’s obituary highlights loved ones’ efforts to raise awareness of heroin addiction

34. York woman charged with manslaughter in hit-and-run fatality had prior drunken driving charge

35. Two dead, 4 injured, suspect in custody after northern Maine manhunt

36. Opiate danger spikes in Portland with 14 overdoses in 24 hours

37. LePage accused of ‘blackmail’ after school reverses hiring of Rep. Mark Eves as president

38. Portland to get its only direct bus service to New York City

39. LePage forum comes to abrupt end as ex-lawmaker confronts him and gets taken away

40. Just-licensed teenage driver kills pedestrian in Harpswell accident

41. Driver in Dayton triple fatal was repeat offender, records show

42. Man having an affair charged with trying to kill wife in Maine

43. Maine watchdog agency to investigate LePage’s funding threat in Mark Eves hiring

44. At last, mystery of Maine man’s killing in Pennsylvania explained

45. Portland Science Center to open this month with ‘Body Worlds’ exhibit

46. Parents say teenager fatally shot at Portland recording studio was innocent bystander

47. Amy Schumer show in Portland ended so early that many fans aren’t laughing

48. Lovell inn contest’s inhospitable end: A glance behind a hotbed of spite

49. Complaint, probe apparently led to resignation of longtime city official Rachel Talbot Ross

50. Search suspended with no sign of water taxi captain from Cape Elizabeth