Several authors behind Warc's Best Practice series of papers boasted the highest readership over the last year.

As in 2011, Merry Baskin, of planning consultancy Baskin Shark, headed the list of the most-read authors. Baskin has written many of Warc's Best Practice papers in recent years, including a 2012 piece on agency remuneration. (For more details about the most popular material featured on Warc in 2012, click here.)

Second on the list, which excluded Warc staff members and freelance journalists, was Andrew Green, of Ipsos MediaCT, who has an extensive back-catalogue of pieces explaining the nuances of media planning.

Also in the top five most-read authors were: consultant Laurie Young, another Best Practice author and regular contributor to Market Leader; J Walker Smith, of the Futures Company and a writer for Warc's trends section; and Dan Calladine, of Aegis Media and whose trend predictions for 2012 proved to be a big hit.

The most-read author from Warc was Geoffrey Precourt, the site's US editor, whose reports from conferences have covered innovations by some of the biggest names in marketing.

Next came David Tiltman, Warc's international editor and the writer of various major trend reports in 2012. Third place was taken by Joseph Clift, Warc's web producer and the author of several event reports in 2012, including its coverage of this year's Cannes Lions.

Data sourced from Warc