How Does AllTop Rank Stories?
The order of stories on AllTop isn't chronological. Every story gets a score, stories sort by that score, and editors review the top of the list and make the final call before it publishes. The story that comes out on top becomes "The big story" on the homepage, or "Story of the day" when it cuts across topics.
Here's what actually moves a story up or down.
How the ranking system works
It's not just a story. Our system is a cluster of related articles from different outlets covering the same event so our readers have multiple perspectives and angles to choose from. That's why one entry can show "12 sources". This is twelve distinct outlets, grouped together. (How that grouping works is its own explainer.) The source count then feeds almost every signal below.
What pushes a story up in the rankings
Freshness — with a catch: A story's age is measured from its newest article, and the score fades over hours. But how fast it fades depends on corroboration. A story with only one outlet covering it burns out within a couple of hours. A story with 15+ sources holds its value for half a day or longer, depending on the news cycle. Big stories will earn a longer shelf life.
Breadth: Articles coming in from more distinct outlets earn a higher score, with extra credit when high-authority outlets and multiple top-tier sources are on it. The only exception to this rule is near-identical wire copy, in which case, we will try to publish the original article on the wire. Ten outlets running the same syndicated text is one act of reporting, not ten.
Momentum: We also measure momentum. This is how many new outlets picked the story up in the last three hours, and whether that pace is accelerating or not. A story suddenly attracting coverage can outrank an older one with a bigger total.
What drags a story down
Staleness: Once a story fades past several hours old, an escalating penalty kicks in.
Being off-topic: A story that doesn't actually belong on a topic page will either lose points or is removed entirely.
A single source: To avoid fake news, we typically avoid a single outlet reporting, even if it's a scoop. The story should be picked up by other outlets.
Why the top story doesn't flip every five minutes
Stories that held a top slot in the last ranking get a small boost in the next one — the largest at number one. Without it, near-tied stories would swap places constantly and the homepage would thrash. A challenger has to clearly outscore the incumbent, not just edge past it for a minute. A story that was ranked first and has eight or more sources also gets an anchor bonus, which keeps a confirmed major story on top while it develops.
After the scores sort, editors review the top of the list and make the final call, adjusting the order where their judgment differs from the score. Rankings republish only when the story pool actually changes, so what you see reflects real movement.
Moving Now is a different list
"Moving now" and "Top markets" on the homepage have nothing to do with this scoring model.
Top markets where odds and probability have been integrated sort by 24-hour traded dollar volume.
Moving now sorts by the biggest 24-hour price change. Those come straight from the prediction market trading data.
News ranking decides what you read; market data decides what's moving.