Magazines That Will Publish Your List, Based On How Many Items Are In It
"I'll never write a listicle," promised exiting Gawker editor Choire Sicha, naming the article form that symbolizes mediocrity (unless you are the Constitution). And while everyone in media except Sicha remains willing to pass off lists as articles, not all listicles are equal. Here are the industry standards for number of items in a listicle.
1: New Yorker, Atlantic
2: Reason
3: Slate
4. Economist
5: Esquire
6: Highlights
7: McSweeney's
10: Cracked.com; the online arm of every major magazine
11: Cosmo Girl
12: Cosmo
15: Men's Health
23: Real Simple
25: Fortune
60: Entertainment Weekly
100: Radar, Rolling Stone
300-700: Vogue
701+: New England Journal Of Medicine
As you can see, the cachet of a listicle vs. the number of items listed roughly follows an inverse normal curve, with an "uncanny valley" bottoming out in the teens.