Ranked list
A numbered rundown with the picks named, ranked and explained - and a criteria section that makes the ranking checkable.
Use Ranked list when the reader wants options put in order: the best of something, with a winner at the top. You give it a subject and a count; it comes back as one article with the picks named, ranked and explained.
Say what is being ranked, in the plural
Write it the way it would read in a headline - "budget espresso machines", "CRMs for freelancers" - because it goes into the headline exactly as typed.
Choose how many make the cut
The count lands in the headline and in the heading of the rundown, and the desk is told to produce exactly that many entries, numbered from one.
More picks does not mean a longer article. It means the same length split further, so each entry is shorter.
The picks are the desk's, not yours
It researches and chooses them. If you already know which items you want covered, an Assignment with one row per item gives you a piece on each instead.
Half the article is the rundown itself
The rest is the frame around it: the short answer up front, how the picks were made, how to choose, and the questions people ask next.
The criteria section is what makes a ranking checkable rather than an assertion. A list of names with no stated basis is an opinion; a list with the basis written down is something a reader can argue with, which is the point.
Related: Head to head when there are only two · Explainer