London Olympics is news gold - top story of 2012: Plus most used phrase and most prolific journalist

The Olympics, the Diamond Jubilee, and the Leveson inquiry were the biggest stories of 2012 in the UK, according to journalisted.

Most covered in 2012 were:

• The London  Olympic Games (38,674 articles) and Paralympic Games (4,743 articles) took place in summer after a 70-day torch relay (760 articles).

• The country celebrated the Queen's Diamond Jubilee (7,694 articles). The royal family were the subject of much media attention after photos of Prince Harry naked were published on the internet (471 articles) and pictures of Kate Middleton topless were published in European magazines (433 articles). In December St. James's Palace announced the Duchess of Cambridge's pregnancy (759 articles).

• The Leveson inquiry (5,452 articles) heard evidence about the culture and ethics of the press, publishing its recommendations in November.

• An independent Scotland (3,869 articles) became a possibility after an in/out referendum (2,868 articles) was announced.

• The Libor scandal (3,782 articles) put Barclays' Bob Diamond (1,357 articles) in the public spotlight. Fred Goodwin's knighthood was shredded at the beginning of the year (458 articles) and Bankers' bonuses featured heavily with 1,840 articles.

• Obama won the American presidential election (3344 articles), with much focus on the candidates' reaction to hurricane Sandy in the final days of the campaign (2,069 articles)

Covered little in 2012, according to journalisted, were:

• Changes were made to the Legal Aid (LASPO) bill , 152 articles.

• Concerns over the backlog at the UK Border Agency reaching 276,000 backlog and 150,000 illegal migrants, 88 articles.

• Universities see a sharp drop in number of UCAS applications, 113 articles.

• In science news, NASA's rover 'Curiosity' lands on Mars, 191 articles.

• Gary Dobson and David Norris are sentenced for murdering Stephen Lawrence, 18 years after the event, 139 articles.  

The most mentioned phrases were:

•  Austerity, 14,453 articles.
• Double dip, 2,732 articles. 
• Fiscal cliff, 1,579 articles.
• Mansion tax, 915 articles.
• Granny tax, 634 articles.
• Pasty tax, 571 articles.
• Squeezed middle, 563 articles.
• Scroungers, 410 articles.
• Strivers, 268 articles.
• Grexit, 252 articles.

Most prolific journalists (number of articles published online):

• Roy Greenslade (The Guardian), 1,100 articles.
• Damien Gayle (MailOnline), 923 articles.
• Nick Fletcher (The Guardian), 871 articles.
• Mark Sweney (The Guardian), 871 articles.
• Jill Reilly (MailOnline), 806 articles.
• Rachael Wheeler (The Mirror), 794 articles.
• Rowena Mason (The Daily Telegraph), 771 articles.
• Charles Arthur (The Guardian), 733 articles.
• Christopher Hope (The Daily Telegraph), 703 articles.

• See also: Best Media Quotes of 2012: An arresting year for British journalists and journalism.